The Tertiary Education Commission has left Riddet off its list of sites to be visited before it decides how to divide an elite fund of $26m.
Other farm-linked outfits on the cutting floor are the nationwide Bio-Protection Centre and Gravida, which works in biomedical, clinical, and animal science.
Riddet is hosted by Massey University in partnership with several other universities and started its life with six years of funding from the commission’s Teaching Research Fund.
Co-director Paul Moughan said Riddet could survive the loss of the grant but it was surprising to be in that position, given its standing as a food researcher and innovator.
“It’s complete astonishment from the country and outside New Zealand for that matter,” he said.
Its commission grant represented a quarter to a third of its total funding and was channelled into core science that enabled research and new ideas in the food sector.
Failing to make the list of site visits indicated Riddet’s funding was at risk and raised alarm bells, Moughan said.
The commission has said since the announcement Riddet would have to wait until the next round to try again for the “elite of the elite” fund.
Moughan said he understood one successful grant typically put an applicant to the fund in a good position to get a second grant.
There were signals that perhaps the commission felt one round was enough, he said.
“I think you could ask anyone in the country and they will say that Riddet has been No 1. It’s been seen as a huge success story.”
Paul Moughan
Riddet co-director
This was despite the Government showing a lot of foresight in supporting Riddet’s creation, knowing the economy depended on adding value to food.
“To that we need to have world-class, under-pinning research, and that’s what Riddet provides.”
However, commission chief executive Tim Fowler said Riddet’s research capability didn’t meet an elite, world-class standard that would have made it eligible for further assessment.
There had been 27 applications for eight grants. Seven institutions, including Riddet, were carrying funds from the previous round and several had received $5m-$6m.
In the first assessment stage for the new round there was a 70% weighting on research excellence and less for contributions to NZ education and the economy.
An applicant would be mistaken if they believed previous performance would be a major influence, Fowler said.
“The selection criteria in no way have previous performance at their core.”
However, unsuccessful applicants shouldn’t see the selections as an indictment of their research standards. It was more that they weren’t among the best of the best, he said.
Moughan said it was possible the commission hadn’t understood fully Riddet’s importance as a provider to the food industry.
“They are the sorts of questions that we’ll be asking, but it seems extraordinary that any New Zealander couldn’t see the importance of this, he said.
“I think you could ask anyone in the country and they will say that Riddet has been No 1. It’s been seen as a huge success story.”
Riddet was the country’s only centre dedicated to the food industry. The institute comprised staff from Massey, Auckland and Otago universities, as well as Plant and Food Research and AgResearch.
The planned second round of funding would have brought Canterbury University into that fold, Moughan said.
“So it’s bringing together the best of the best, right across the country, in food and human physiology and health.”
The link between core commission funding and applied, commercially directed science helped it attract funding from companies like Zespri, Goodman Fielder, and Fonterra, he said.
“So you need this kind of collective of types of funding. Strategically it’s extremely important and it’s the kind of funding that’s hard to get elsewhere.”
Nearly every signal it had received from the Government, the commission, stakeholders and overseas connections suggested Riddet was an A-plus, he said.
“Obviously one looks but it is very difficult to find an Achilles heel. So it may well be a change in government policy. It could be lot of things.”
Fowler said Crown policy hadn’t changed and the commission had more money in its Teaching Fund than the last round of decisions six years ago.
He could understand Riddet’s disappointment but was sure the process had been fair and rigorous.
The institute would still have its existing commission funding until the end of next year, he said.
The commission also receives $275m annually to fund tertiary education, of which the majority goes to universities.
