Reflections on a

decade of

leadership of

global agricultural

mitigation research

Hayden Montgomery

9 April 2019

• International science cooperation / international collaboration typically defined — as either

advancing knowledge and ensuring scientific capability — or advancing broader national

interests.

• A theoretical framing of science diplomacy (the what):

Science in diplomacy: Science providing advice to inform and support foreign policy objectives

Diplomacy for science: Diplomacy facilitating international scientific cooperation

Science for diplomacy: Scientific cooperation improving international relations

• A more recent pragmatic framing of science diplomacy (the why):

Actions designed to directly advance a country’s national needs

Actions designed to address cross-border interests

Actions primarily designed to meet global needs and challenges

Science diplomacy

Gluckman PD, Turekian VC, Grimes RW &

Kishi T, “Science Diplomacy: A Pragmatic

Perspective from the Inside,” Science &

Diplomacy 6(4), December 2017.

http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/article/201

8/pragmatic-perspective

• Launch of GRA was recognition of an alignment of direct national interest, with cross-border and

global interest.

• That (in 2009) New Zealand’s national circumstances vis-à-vis other countries differed.

• Food, Energy, Water and the Climate: A Perfect Storm Of Global Events? John Beddington, Chief

Scientific Adviser to UK Government, 2009

“There is an intrinsic link between the challenge we face to ensure food security through the 21st century

and other global issues, most notably climate change...”

“It is predicted that by 2030 the world will need to produce 50 per cent more food and energy, together with

30 per cent more available fresh water, whilst mitigating and adapting to climate change. This threatens to

create a ‘perfect storm’ of global events.“

“Science and technology can make a major contribution, by providing practical solutions. Securing this

contribution requires that high priority be attached both to research and to facilitating the real world

deployment of existing and emergent technologies. On food, we need a new, “greener revolution”.

Science diplomacy - GRA

GHG emissions from agriculture (absolute)

Source: EDGAR database, data for 2008, accessed 2012

GHG emissions from agriculture (percentage of national total)

Source: EDGAR database, data for 2008, accessed 2012

GHG emissions from agriculture (absolute)

Source: EDGAR database, data for 2008, accessed 2012

GHG emissions from agriculture (percentage of national total)

Source: EDGAR database, data for 2008, accessed 2012

First of its kind – others soon followed

2012

2012

2012

2014

GRA Membership 2009-2010

GRA Membership 2011

GRA Membership 2012

GRA Membership 2013

GRA Membership 2014

GRA Membership 2015

GRA Membership 2016

GRA Membership 2017

GRA Membership 2018

GRA Membership 2019

GRA Membership 2019

GRA leadership over the years

Current GRA Leadership

Global Rumen Census

Global solutions to reduce methane from ruminant animals are feasible

because the microbes causing the emissions are similar around the world.

140 scientists from 73 organisations in 3 countries contributed to the rumen census, with microbial samples collected over two years.

Since 2012, MAGGnet has compiled metadata from over 337 experimental studies from 23 countries.

Modelling and meta-analysis

Best practice and emerging options

Building farmer-farmer + science-farmer networks

New Zealand -

2014 Farm

Management and

Research for

Environmental

Outcomes

• Poland

• Canada

• Argentina

Argentina - 2015

Agricultural activity:

sustainable practices

and emission of

greenhouse gases

• New Zealand

• Paraguay

• Uruguay

• South Africa

New Zealand -2016

Skills and Tools to

Address Climate

Change Challenges

• Germany

• Japan

• Mexico

• WFO Board

(Uganda, France,

Switzerland, New

Zealand, EU)

Italy - 2017

Extending climate

change science to

farmers

• Colombia

• Egypt

• New Zealand

• South Africa

• Uruguay

New Zealand -

2019

On-farm innovation

to improve

productivity and

build climate

resilience

• Uganda

• Ethiopia

• Kenya

• Indonesia

CLIFF-GRADS Phd Scholarships

Two calls First call – December 2017

• 68 opportunities advertised.

• 42 scholarships awarded to recipients from more than

20 countries.

• Hosted in GRA member country research institutes

and international research centres.

Technical training awards: >20

PhD: 4

Post-Doc: 12

Senior Scientist: 15

Policy: 1

Country of origin of recipients of NZ-funded awards, workshops and study tours

Country of origin of NZ’s GRA mitigation research collaborators

Benefits – visibility and influence

Benefits – leveraging investment and expertise

NEW ZEALAND FUNDING

35%

INTERNATIONAL FUNDING

65%

(Rumen census) – “…if we had tried to fund a project like that ourselves, it would have been cost prohibitive..[instead] we just had the cost of the analysis…but if we’d had to collect the samples ourselves it would have cost a fortune…and it answered a massive question any company wants to know in terms of investing.”

“There are only two labs in the world that have very big computing power for genomic analysis….through the GRA we got access to the one in the states. And they funded a whole load of stuff for us, that if we’d had to have funded it ourselves would have cost us millions if we’d commercially bought time there…the JGI did all the sequencing for us for nothing. That is untold science benefits to us. And there are now projects continuing with JGI because we got this initial project and they saw value, we now have a continuing relationship, which has come about through the GRA. So those benefits are less tangible in many ways, but they are continuous.”

“Some of the GRA collaborative work came up with a rapid way of screening chemicals that could knock out these bugs [in the rumen]. This is a really slow process in general and we developed a rapid high throughput, so instead of being able to screen 20 at a time, you can screen 400 so then you’re screening 50,000 compounds – that’s a huge difference. “

When well positioned, initiatives can enjoy bipartisan

support.

The voluntary and non-partisan space created by the GRA

has allowed progress on what has been a very sensitive

area and has helped to shape the narrative around GHG

and climate change.

Changes in political leadership of members during life of

GRA, yet commitment remains – in many cases has grown

stronger.

GRA has enjoyed bipartisanship

Scientific values of rationality,

transparency and universality are

the same the world over. They can

help to underpin good governance

and build trust between nations.

The Royal Society

Not on track

Global Change Biology

Volume 22, Issue 12, pages 3859-3864, 11 JUL 2016 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13340

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13340/full#gcb13340-fig-0001

IPCC SR: Global Warming of 1.5 Degrees

Climate change impacts will make the mitigation goal even more difficult:

harder to retain carbon in soil, reduce quality of animal diets, reduce rates of

increase in productivity, reduce yields in some regions, etc…

Quantification challenge (activity data and representative emissions factors):

- 5 of 140 developing countries can routinely capture livestock GHGs in

national inventories

- 5 of 22 mitigation actions able to be captured in inventories in EU

countries

Disconnect between industry code of practice and public policy, e.g. “4Rs”

(right source, rate, time, place). But how, when not spatially explicit, when

we use constant EF to total quantity of N applied, no discrimination between

fertiliser types, rate of application, seasonality, etc.

Challenges

Scarcity of capability and capacity in many parts of the world – need to develop pipeline of next

generation of science leaders – Masters, PhD, Post-Docs.

National systems take time to adjust – multi-year budget cycles, in situation of scarce resources

competition between national actors more prevalent than collaboration.

Science is typically nationalistic – very challenging to achieve truly “international” funding. Few examples

– NZ in GRA has been one.

Sustained, long-term investment in science is needed:

- to retain expertise

- to give confidence to investment in necessary research infrastructure

- proportional to the scale of the challenge (and national interest)

- with flexibility to enable maximum agility in international arena

Actions that NZ take can have global impact.

Challenges

Thank you