May 29, 2025 • 6 mins
MPI’s chief science advisor, and the newly appointed chief science advisor to the Prime Minister, discusses agriculture and science. Plus, he discusses the Science for Farmers programme, which has been expanded.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right here. We're now looking at, of course the well
he's the MPI Chief Science Advisor, Prime Minister's Chief Science
Advisor and Deputy Chairman of the Prime Minister's News, Science
and Technology Council, and it is doctor John Roch. John,
how are you so?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm fantastic, Hamish.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Great to be here, Great to have you here with us.
You were recently appointed the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor.
Congratulations on that. What what do you? What are you?
What are you and the board aiming to do and
hope for you to achieve in this role?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Thanks Hamish, and look at Cam's a bit of a
surprise to me and a huge honor. But what we're
what we're the Advisory Council and myself included are looking
to do is it's set some strong priorities and some
strong guidelines for the science community. And what are the
priorities going forward for research investment in the Zilla?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Okay, so what we what you know? I guess what
are a couple of key things that you'd really like
to nail early on?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well early on. Obviously we're going through a science physical
structure reform in terms of taking the CRIS and putting
into amalgamating them into public research organizations, and that's a
big piece of work that's that's ongoing, and I'm very
very keen to get involved and make sure that we
lend that is as effectively as we can with all
(01:21):
of you know, the people actually coming out the other
end looking forward to their science careers. So that's an
important part of it. And then in the next month,
the Science and Technology and Innovation Advisory Council, we'll get
together just to meet each other. Some of us know
each other already, but we don't know each other as
a group, and that will be a good opportunity to
(01:42):
look over terms of reference, make sure we're all on
the same page in terms of what that means, and
then step forward into a pretty heavy work program over
the next six months. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Look, in this fast changing world, those who are not
taking we're not seeing the importance and relevance of sciences
and can tree and the world that's shooting themselves in
the foot, aren't they? I mean, because we just got
to move Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, generally people that don't take science seriously don't understand
that most of the things they do on a day
to day basis have in some way been underpinned by science, yes,
and the technology that's derived from it. So and look
that's fine. You know, we all go about our busy
lives taking things for granted, but you're absolutely right, fast
passed world climate is changing rapidly. There's a lot of
(02:30):
opportunities for New Zealand to take advantage of and they
will be underpinned by research, science and innovation.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Sticking with science, you've expanded the Science for Farmers program
and it's presence that this year is a field ice.
Tell us more about that.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Oh, look, it's exciting. So up till very recently I
was the director of the ENTRAP support team as MPI
and farmers around the country had made it really clear
to me that they felt disengaged from the science system.
You know, the reforms of the nineties had taken in
a way the advisor that sat between the scientists and
the farmer and the two way conversation that tended to happen.
(03:06):
And so last year we took on the initiative of
setting up a large standard mystry Creek brought a number
of private and public sector scientists into that to talk
about the science they were doing and answer farmers questions
and it was a huge success. So we actually took
that on the road, went to the fourth regional fields
this year and again had great interactions with farmers, just
(03:29):
great conversations. So we decided to do it again and
do it bigger and better. And so we're on a
side offer a different site, just up from where we were,
but in a better location, right beside the Village green
straight out of the pavilion, and you know, it's a
big site covering farm profitability and productivity, covering aspects of
(03:51):
farming that we need to consider into the next thirty
years as the climate changes and made aspects of what
we do just a little bit more difficult. All of
the investments that are going into greenhouse gas mitigations by
the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Center and by
Agri Zero, they'll be there on site as well. We
have a section on genetic technologies, so l I C
(04:11):
and a research will be will be leading the conversations
on how using modern genetic technologies is accelerating our genetic
improvement in both animals and then the potential for gene
editing to advance our our agricultural sector. And then Finally,
it's almost the piece to resistance. Actually, we have a
(04:34):
section on freshwater quality and darien Z and Natcy and others.
You know, we're going to have We're going to have
constructive wet lends there that allow us to have really
good conversations with farmers that are interested in that. We
will be talking about the tension bonds and bioreactors and
and other mitigations that farmers can could put in place
to you know, achieve what they wanted. They want to
(04:55):
achieve for their fresh water.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And they do want to achieve. I think that's how
you know, SA you know so many there's so much
murky water when it comes to the reporting of what
farmers want to achieve and how much they care and
how much they want to do. And you mentioned the
word disengagement. I mean, that's such a dangerous path to
go down. It's so great to hear from you that
these farmers are now coming to the likes of the
field days and actually offering it up on stuff that
(05:20):
I'm sure is very constructive from your perspective.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh absolutely, Look you use the nail on the head.
I get to meet the farmers that doesn't want to
leave the environment in the better state and here she
received this and we've got we've got a few farmer panels, actually,
we've got to We've got as well as having all
of these scientists on site, we have wall to wall
panels for people to come and listen to, and a
couple of those panels are farmers coming along to talking
(05:44):
about key aspects of their business that they've managed to nail.
So it's very very difficult to be the best at everything,
but every farmer is the best at something, and so
what we've done is we've picked a couple of key
topics there and picked farmers that are really proven in
achieving industry goals in those areas, and they're going to
come along and tell us how they've done it. And
(06:06):
that's a really exciting part of the forum.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Doctor John right, thank you very much for joining us
here on the country.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Thanks Damish
Right here. We're now looking at, of course the well
he's the MPI Chief Science Advisor, Prime Minister's Chief Science
Advisor and Deputy Chairman of the Prime Minister's News, Science
and Technology Council, and it is doctor John Roch. John,
how are you so?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm fantastic, Hamish.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Great to be here, Great to have you here with us.
You were recently appointed the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor.
Congratulations on that. What what do you? What are you?
What are you and the board aiming to do and
hope for you to achieve in this role?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Thanks Hamish, and look at Cam's a bit of a
surprise to me and a huge honor. But what we're
what we're the Advisory Council and myself included are looking
to do is it's set some strong priorities and some
strong guidelines for the science community. And what are the
priorities going forward for research investment in the Zilla?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Okay, so what we what you know? I guess what
are a couple of key things that you'd really like
to nail early on?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well early on. Obviously we're going through a science physical
structure reform in terms of taking the CRIS and putting
into amalgamating them into public research organizations, and that's a
big piece of work that's that's ongoing, and I'm very
very keen to get involved and make sure that we
lend that is as effectively as we can with all
(01:21):
of you know, the people actually coming out the other
end looking forward to their science careers. So that's an
important part of it. And then in the next month,
the Science and Technology and Innovation Advisory Council, we'll get
together just to meet each other. Some of us know
each other already, but we don't know each other as
a group, and that will be a good opportunity to
(01:42):
look over terms of reference, make sure we're all on
the same page in terms of what that means, and
then step forward into a pretty heavy work program over
the next six months. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Look, in this fast changing world, those who are not
taking we're not seeing the importance and relevance of sciences
and can tree and the world that's shooting themselves in
the foot, aren't they? I mean, because we just got
to move Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, generally people that don't take science seriously don't understand
that most of the things they do on a day
to day basis have in some way been underpinned by science, yes,
and the technology that's derived from it. So and look
that's fine. You know, we all go about our busy
lives taking things for granted, but you're absolutely right, fast
passed world climate is changing rapidly. There's a lot of
(02:30):
opportunities for New Zealand to take advantage of and they
will be underpinned by research, science and innovation.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Sticking with science, you've expanded the Science for Farmers program
and it's presence that this year is a field ice.
Tell us more about that.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Oh, look, it's exciting. So up till very recently I
was the director of the ENTRAP support team as MPI
and farmers around the country had made it really clear
to me that they felt disengaged from the science system.
You know, the reforms of the nineties had taken in
a way the advisor that sat between the scientists and
the farmer and the two way conversation that tended to happen.
(03:06):
And so last year we took on the initiative of
setting up a large standard mystry Creek brought a number
of private and public sector scientists into that to talk
about the science they were doing and answer farmers questions
and it was a huge success. So we actually took
that on the road, went to the fourth regional fields
this year and again had great interactions with farmers, just
(03:29):
great conversations. So we decided to do it again and
do it bigger and better. And so we're on a
side offer a different site, just up from where we were,
but in a better location, right beside the Village green
straight out of the pavilion, and you know, it's a
big site covering farm profitability and productivity, covering aspects of
(03:51):
farming that we need to consider into the next thirty
years as the climate changes and made aspects of what
we do just a little bit more difficult. All of
the investments that are going into greenhouse gas mitigations by
the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Center and by
Agri Zero, they'll be there on site as well. We
have a section on genetic technologies, so l I C
(04:11):
and a research will be will be leading the conversations
on how using modern genetic technologies is accelerating our genetic
improvement in both animals and then the potential for gene
editing to advance our our agricultural sector. And then Finally,
it's almost the piece to resistance. Actually, we have a
(04:34):
section on freshwater quality and darien Z and Natcy and others.
You know, we're going to have We're going to have
constructive wet lends there that allow us to have really
good conversations with farmers that are interested in that. We
will be talking about the tension bonds and bioreactors and
and other mitigations that farmers can could put in place
to you know, achieve what they wanted. They want to
(04:55):
achieve for their fresh water.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And they do want to achieve. I think that's how
you know, SA you know so many there's so much
murky water when it comes to the reporting of what
farmers want to achieve and how much they care and
how much they want to do. And you mentioned the
word disengagement. I mean, that's such a dangerous path to
go down. It's so great to hear from you that
these farmers are now coming to the likes of the
field days and actually offering it up on stuff that
(05:20):
I'm sure is very constructive from your perspective.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh absolutely, Look you use the nail on the head.
I get to meet the farmers that doesn't want to
leave the environment in the better state and here she
received this and we've got we've got a few farmer panels, actually,
we've got to We've got as well as having all
of these scientists on site, we have wall to wall
panels for people to come and listen to, and a
couple of those panels are farmers coming along to talking
(05:44):
about key aspects of their business that they've managed to nail.
So it's very very difficult to be the best at everything,
but every farmer is the best at something, and so
what we've done is we've picked a couple of key
topics there and picked farmers that are really proven in
achieving industry goals in those areas, and they're going to
come along and tell us how they've done it. And
(06:06):
that's a really exciting part of the forum.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Doctor John right, thank you very much for joining us
here on the country.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Thanks Damish
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