Government funding of health research in New Zealand
Ian R Reid, Peter Joyce, John Fraser, Peter Crampton
An analysis of levels of government health research funding carried out in 2008 demonstrated that funding in New Zealand, after adjustment for population size, was much lower than in comparator countries. This was perceived to be a major obstacle to the recruitment and retention of clinical and academic staff in our hospitals and universities. We have now repeated these comparisons, and find that from 2009 to the present, funds [for direct funding of research through the Health Research Council (HRC)] have remained static at 54 million dollars annually. As a result of inflation of research costs, this represents a decrease of approximately one-quarter in the quantum of research funded by the HRC over the last 4 years. Current funding rates are 3.4-fold higher in Australia, 4.5-fold higher in the United Kingdom, and 9.7-fold higher in the United States. Urgent and sustained action is needed to correct these major disparities in government health research funding if the quality of academic and clinical staff in our public institutions is to be maintained.
