Quick Dips

No Lucky Lotto for NZ Science

New Zealand science will be hit hard by the Lottery Grants Board's no longer making funds available for science projects, according to Victoria University's Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Research, Dr John Morrow. Without this funding, New Zealand scientists will increasingly have to work with outdated equipment.

"Neither of the major science funds, the Public Good Science Fund nor the Marsden Fund, will directly fund items of equipment that cost more than $5000. The Lottery Grants Board was the only agency that provided such funds in New Zealand for science."

Morrow says that New Zealand is now possibly the only country in the OECD that does not have a mechanism that can provide funds for major items of equipment.

"It is disappointing to think that the Lottery Grants Board regards science as having a lower priority than any of the other categories of activity that they fund. Science not only makes a vital contribution to the growth of the economy, it is also an important cultural activity."