MPI investment programmes director Steve Penno says the programme has been supporting New Zealand’s response to climate change since 2007 and has been recognised internationally as leading the world in this area.
“NZ-based research is directly adding to the global knowledge base on the biggest issues facing our planet and will continue to keep NZ at the forefront,” Penno says.
The impacts of climate change are projected to intensify over the coming decades – both environmentally and economically.
Both domestic and international expectations about the response to climate change and sustainable use of resources have risen.
Research highlights that 63% of farmers agree or strongly agree that global human activity is contributing to climate change, a significant increase on the proportion agreeing in 2009.
“This is a particularly exciting year in our climate change journey and we are looking forward to seeing the research proposals that will take our primary sectors to the next steps.
“We are still learning about how climate change affects our livelihoods, how to adapt and how to mitigate our contributions to warming.
“This funding gets scientists and researchers working with the agriculture sector to understand and solve the problems and even see the opportunities.”
Each year’s funding prioritises one or more research theme topics.
For the 2019-20 round they are:
Research Theme 1: Impacts of climate change and adaptation.
Research Theme 2: Extension of climate change research.
Applications are assessed by an external advisory panel, which provides recommendations to MPI for final grant decisions.
Organisations, individuals or partnerships with co-funding from industry are encouraged to apply. Applications must be received by 3pm on Friday June 14. Projects can run for one or two years.
Since 2007 the programme has invested about $50 million in more than 150 targeted, basic, applied, and policy research projects relating to climate change in the land-based production sectors.
The reports as well as a 10-year retrospective are available on the MPI website.
