Govt R&D Expenditure in NZ

here.
$500 million sounds like a lot, but that's only 0.5% odd of GDP, it'd have to be well over a billion to even be OECD average (and business would need to do the same).
Not sure if i agree with the focus on 18 month ROI's, i still think bulk funding of specialised areas with detailed dispersement left to them would be a clearer way of funding.
Let's see if Helen walks the walk with her sustainability drive by doubling R&D into a single centre of excellence (preferably somewhere that people want to live) focused on the multi-discipline skills needed to tackle the problem.