Driving better programme investment and accelerating challenge impact through a prioritisation matrix of international and national perspectives: The matrix

Abstract

Optimising our land and freshwater resources on the basis of economic, environmental, social and cultural sustainability is a key outcome of the ‘Our land and water’ National Science Challenge. Therefore identifying areas of the highest potential impact, as related to the hierarchy of international and national issues, is needed to provide an evidence base to guide investment and inform the Challenge Research Strategy. To this end, a project was conducted to deliver an overview of the international and domestic drivers, as well as their relevance to the New Zealand primary sector and its land use (Saunders et al, 2016a). The project combines and rates these international and domestic drivers on changes in water and land use. By using this approach, a summary representation of the level of interest/concern of international ‘consumers’ and customers was produced alongside an overview of domestic issues and stakeholder interests relevant to the primary sector. Where possible, the drivers were based upon quantifiable evidence. This report provides an updated understanding of the national and international drivers and issues and their importance to the primary sector. This builds on an earlier report that assessed how these drivers change where we invest in primary sector research as related to economic growth, social, cultural and environmental interactions. Repeating this research overtime will allow us to understand how drivers and issues change and how this affects the impact the Challenge has and its future research directions. This work will provide a contribution to the Challenge Strategy and focus future programmes such as the primary performance indicators and ‘greater value in global markets’ Challenge theme. Working across the entire primary sector and involving stakeholders collectively will contribute to a more cohesive view of the primary sector’s response to Challenge issues. This will also contribute to meeting a main aim of the Challenge, which is “to enhance primary sector production and productivity whilst maintaining and improving our land and water quality for future generations (OLW, 2017).” This report is structured as follows: Chapter 1 presents an introduction to the current update of the Drivers Project; Chapter 2 outlines the methodology and results of a New Zealand-wide survey of primary industry experts regarding international and domestic drivers with the potential to affect land use change and/or practice; Chapter 3 presents a review of foresight literature for trends which are likely to affect land use change and/or practice internationally into the future; Chapter 4 presents a conclusion of the current report, including suggestions for future research.