Over 2024 and 2025 the Aotearoa New Zealand science system has undergone its largest change in three decades, with the merging of the Crown Research Institutes into three new 'Public Research Organisations' as well as major changes and postponements to funds such as the Health Research Council, the Marsden Fund, and the Endeavour Fund. At the same time, there have been significant job losses and cuts in funding across the public sector.
This article is based on a report originally compiled by the Save Science Coalition, a group of 33 scientific societies and unions, in July 2024 to provide a permanent public record of the scope of cuts to the science sector in terms of both job losses and funding cuts. It also includes some data from an update to the original report in February 2025. All data is therefore prior to the mergers of the Crown Research Institutes later in 2025. Finally, it has commentary from scientists about the likely impact these cuts will have on research currently underway across the public science sector.
