A strategic analysis of funding opportunities, institutional relationships, and positioning actions arising from MBIE's Science Investment Plan 2026–2036 — mapped directly to MPL's ongoing R&D programme, BSI/AgResearch partnerships, and commercialisation trajectory.
The Science Investment Plan 2026–2036 represents the most significant restructuring of New Zealand's publicly funded science system in over 30 years. For Mānuka Performance, this is not a peripheral policy document — it is a direct map of where government investment will flow for the next decade, which institutions will hold influence, and which types of companies will be advantaged in the new system.
MPL is already positioned inside this system through the AgResearch/BSI Flagship 2 SSIF partnership, the C-LCA programme, and the MPS PolySure™ R&D infrastructure. The question is not whether MPL is relevant to the Plan — it clearly is. The question is how deliberately and early MPL positions itself to access the new funding mechanisms, cultivate the new institutional relationships, and narrate its work in the language this system now rewards.
The Plan explicitly identifies nutraceuticals, premium bioactive ingredients, mātauranga Māori integration, AI-enabled data platforms, and Māori economy participation in knowledge-intensive sectors as priority areas. MPL's entire programme sits at that intersection. This document maps the specific opportunities and the actions required to capture them.
The Plan is not only about supporting public science capability; it is about strengthening a system that converts knowledge into commercial and societal value. Firms are the largest investors and the primary route to impact. The Māori economy is a significant and growing component of the economic base, with a large and rapidly expanding asset base and increasing participation in knowledge-intensive sectors.
— MBIE Science Investment Plan 2026–2036, p.5 (paraphrased)| Structural Change | Effective Date | Implication for MPL | Urgency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research Funding New Zealand (RFNZ) replaces MBIE as primary funding decision-maker | Operational now; full by 2030 | RFNZ is the new primary relationship to build. MPL should seek an introductory engagement with RFNZ as the Pillar Investment Plans are developed (due September 2026). | ● High |
| Callaghan Innovation disestablished from 1 July 2026 | 1 July 2026 | Some Callaghan-administered programmes transition to MBIE or are absorbed into the new structure. Check status of any active or pending Callaghan-route applications immediately. | ● High |
| Endeavour Fund and Marsden Fund consolidated into new 2027 Transition Fund | Opens late 2026 | The 2027 Transition Fund is the immediate new competitive mechanism. MPL should assess eligibility and prepare — either directly or as a named industry partner with BSI/AgResearch. | ● High |
| New national IP management policy — researcher-owned IP strengthened | 1 July 2026 | Positive for MPL's IP protection strategy and for structuring future co-development agreements with BSI/AgResearch. Ensure new agreements post-July reference the updated policy. | ● Medium |
| Bioeconomy Science Institute (BSI) formalised as one of four Public Research Organisations | Completed | BSI now has greater institutional scale, funding clarity, and mission focus on primary industry bioeconomy. MPL's existing Flagship 2 partnership is with the right institution at the right time. Strengthen and formalise the relationship now. | ● High |
| Mātauranga Māori integration: further guidance and investment due via Pillar Investment Plans | September 2026 (Pillar Plans) and beyond | MPL's Kete Rāraunga framework and C-LCA programme are directly relevant to this workstream. Seek to be engaged as a reference case or practitioner voice as RFNZ develops the mātauranga Māori investment framework. | ● Medium |
| Pillar Investment Plans published September 2026 — will define specific research priority areas and funding weightings | September 2026 | These Plans will define what gets funded for years. MPL should review them immediately on release and cross-reference with its R&D pipeline and funding applications in flight. | ● High |
MPL's current co-design partnership in AgResearch Flagship 2 ("Supporting Land Use Transitions to Enhance Māori Agribusiness, Enterprise, and Communities") sits directly inside the Primary Industries and Bioeconomy Pillar. The Plan explicitly names nutraceuticals, premium foods, and advanced bioactive ingredients as high-value product development priorities. The Biodiscovery Platform spotlight (p.15) describes a model — BSI-led, industry + Māori enterprise co-design — that is almost identical to MPL's existing programme structure.
MPL Assets That Qualify
Action Required
Plan Language — Direct Alignment
"Create high-value products, advanced processing capability and IP by building on New Zealand's primary strengths, including premium foods, ingredients, nutraceuticals, advanced materials, chemicals and bio manufactured products." — SIP p.14
The 2027 Transition Fund consolidates the Endeavour and Marsden Funds into a single investigator-led competitive stream, opening for applications in late 2026. The Technology for Prosperity Pillar has the largest funding growth trajectory ($65.8M in 2026/27 rising to $135.2M by 2029/30 under RFNZ alone). The Plan specifically prioritises applied AI tools leveraging unique New Zealand domain datasets and shared platforms accessible to small and medium operators. MPS PolySure™ as an AI-enabled polyphenol grading system is a direct fit.
MPL Assets That Qualify
Action Required
Plan Language — Direct Alignment
"Build advanced computing and AI capability for adaptive decision-making across complex, end-to-end systems — with a specific focus on applied AI tools that leverage New Zealand's size, unique domain datasets and shared platforms that make this capability accessible to small and medium operators." — SIP p.11
The Plan dedicates a dedicated "Future Work" section to strengthening system performance through mātauranga Māori. The He Ara Whakahihiko Capability Fund is explicitly named as a mechanism to "support connections between science and the Māori economy." The Plan signals that further investment guidance will clarify expectations for "appropriate use, stewardship, and protection of mātauranga Māori within publicly funded research, including its treatment in relation to taonga and intellectual property arrangements." MPL's Kete Rāraunga framework is the most advanced practitioner example of this in the honey/bioactive sector.
MPL Assets That Qualify
Action Required
Plan Language — Direct Alignment
"He Ara Whakahihiko Capability Fund can support connections between science and the Māori economy, while providing a practical test bed for how future capability-building initiatives can be applied and refined in practice." — SIP p.24
The Healthy People and a Thriving Society Pillar receives $191M per year by 2029/30 and explicitly targets biomedical innovation, new diagnostics and therapeutics, extending healthy lifespans, and reducing preventable health conditions — particularly for Māori and Pacific populations. The Plan notes that "rising longevity without comparable gains in healthy life expectancy" creates priority opportunity around high-burden preventable conditions. Mānuka Performance's gut health, inflammation, and immune function clinical research pipeline sits directly in this space.
MPL Assets That Qualify
Action Required
Plan Language — Direct Alignment
"Extend healthy lifespans by reducing the impact of high-burden physical and mental health conditions — particularly for Māori and Pacific populations." — SIP p.18
The Environmental Sustainability and Resilience Pillar explicitly prioritises lifecycle assessment methodology and science to support environmental governance and regulation. MPL's Cultural Life Cycle Assessment (C-LCA) programme, developed under BSI/AgResearch Flagship 2, is one of the most advanced examples of tikanga-integrated LCA methodology in the primary sector. The Plan calls for "lifecycle assessment" as a tool for environmental governance, policy and regulation — a direct hook for MPL's methodology being positioned as a sector contribution, not just an internal tool.
MPL Assets That Qualify
Action Required
Plan Language — Direct Alignment
"Science to support environmental governance, policy and regulation — covering settings, standards, incentives, behaviour change, decision frameworks and lifecycle assessment." — SIP p.16
The Catalyst Fund continues under MBIE administration in the new structure and supports international science partnerships. MPL's active research relationships with Jinan University (China) and its USA market development trajectory create a legitimate basis for exploring Catalyst-funded international collaboration — particularly for clinical validation studies that would be impossible to resource domestically at scale. The Plan explicitly flags "international connectedness" as a strengthening criterion for research proposals.
MPL Assets That Qualify
Action Required
Plan Language — Direct Alignment
"International connectedness: Strengthens international connectivity and influence by attracting high-value partnerships, talent and investment, supported by access to shared assets that help New Zealand compete and lead in selected niches." — SIP p.23
The Ignition Fund is a proposed new mechanism — currently under design by RFNZ and the PM's Science Advisory Council — to enable rapid deployment of investment for high-risk, high-reward activity where there is an immediate strategic opportunity. While still in concept, the Fund's intended purpose maps well to MPL's PolySure™ platform build-out and the Kete Rāraunga SaaS/licensing model, which are genuinely novel and not adequately served by existing competitive instruments.
Why MPL Fits the Intent
Action Required
Plan Language — Direct Alignment
"The Ignition Fund will enable the rapid deployment of investment for high-risk, high-reward activity where there is an immediate strategic opportunity that New Zealand needs to respond to." — SIP p.24
| Institution | Role in New System | MPL Current Relationship | Priority Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bioeconomy Science Institute (BSI) | One of four Public Research Organisations; leads Primary Industries & Bioeconomy. Primary partner for nutraceutical and bioactive science. | Active — Flagship 2 co-design partner, C-LCA programme, canine health workstream | Formalise FY27 continuation. Seek senior leadership relationship. Ensure MPL is visible in BSI's input to Pillar Investment Plans. |
| Research Funding New Zealand (RFNZ) | New primary funding decision-maker; develops Pillar Investment Plans; awards investigator-led and mission-led funding from 2027. | None — new institution | Seek initial introductory meeting before Pillar Plans are finalised (September 2026). Submit practitioner input on Primary Industries and mātauranga Māori Pillar design. |
| MBIE — Science & Innovation | Administers contracts for RFNZ; retains SSIF, infrastructure, Catalyst Fund, international science partnerships. Secondary funding relationship. | Moderate — historical MPI/MBIE-funded polyphenol validation project; SSIF via AgResearch | Maintain contact with MBIE SI&T team. Ensure MPL's work is known to the Chief Science Advisor's office. Monitor Catalyst Fund rounds. |
| Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK) | MDF programme; Māori economic development mandate. Not part of science system directly but critical for Māori enterprise capital and narrative alignment. | Active — MDF funding recipient; second tranche application in progress | Brief TPK on MPL's alignment with SIP mātauranga Māori priorities. Position second MDF tranche as part of a broader science-enabled Māori economy narrative. |
| NZTE | Export market support; trade ecosystem; international market intelligence. Not a funder of science but signals government confidence in exporters. | Existing engagement — Beachhead programme reference; USA market activation | Activate USA and Korea NZTE engagement in H2 2026 alongside Amazon pipeline. Seek NZTE market intelligence on Korea functional food regulatory environment. |
| PM's Science, Innovation & Technology Advisory Council | Advises Minister on strategy and funding priorities. Sets the signals that RFNZ executes on. Their reports shape what gets funded for years. | None | Not a direct engagement target at this stage. Monitor Council reports and statements. Ensure MPL's sector story is visible to Council members through BSI and RFNZ channels. |
The Science Investment Plan introduces specific language that will shape how funding proposals are assessed. MPL's existing narrative must be cross-referenced against this language to ensure future applications and engagement materials are legible to RFNZ assessors and MBIE officials working in the new system.
| What the Plan Rewards | How MPL Already Demonstrates This | Where to Strengthen the Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| "Credible pathway to impact" — every proposal must articulate plausible commercial or public-good impact routes | IM financial projections; USA and Korea market validation; eight-year commercial R&D history; existing B2B ingredient licensing | All applications must include an explicit impact pathway section. Do not assume this is obvious — state it directly. |
| "Sector interest" — end-user demand, industry collaboration, responsiveness | All Blacks Sevens, Black Ferns, Tennis NZ ambassador partnerships validate end-user market pull; B2B ingredient customers validate industry demand | Include market validation data and brand partnership evidence as "sector interest" proof points in research applications. |
| "International connectedness" — strengthens NZ's global connectivity and attracts international capital | Jinan University research partnership; USA Amazon activation; Korea market development; AIP investor pathway | International dimension should appear in all science funding narratives, not just export documents. Frame research partnerships as NZ's connection to global bioactive science networks. |
| "Enabling innovation" — produces capability that seeds multiple downstream innovations | MPS PolySure™ as a platform tool potentially licensable across NZ honey sector; Kete Rāraunga as a replicable framework for Māori agribusiness | Explicitly frame PolySure™ and Kete Rāraunga as sector-enabling platforms, not just proprietary tools. This dramatically strengthens the public-investment justification. |
| Māori economy participation in knowledge-intensive sectors | Māori-led governance; Flagship 2 partnership; Te Kōtuku wānanga; Franklin Iwi partnership development; MDF applications | Consolidate Māori economy narrative across all science applications. The Plan explicitly identifies Māori economy participation in knowledge-intensive sectors as a lever for national economic growth — position MPL as the leading live example. |
| "Workforce development" — builds future-ready workforce and regional capability | Student research engagement (honours, masters, doctoral) through Massey and BSI partnerships | Document and formalise student engagement. This is an under-stated asset. Each research partnership should include a workforce development dimension for future applications. |