15 October 2024

I am very pleased to share with you  Scion’s Annual Report for 2024, which has now been presented to Parliament by our shareholding ministers.

As New Zealand’s leading institute in forestry, industrial biotechnology and advanced manufacturing we are working alongside our partners in government and industry to drive innovation and growth to create economic value and contribute to beneficial environmental and social outcomes for New Zealand.

Our Annual Report includes stories that highlight great examples of how we’re working across our three impact areas to create technologically advanced and sustainable solutions that are driving growth in the forestry and biobased sectors, and achieving the objectives we set out in our Statement of Corporate Intent.

We finished the year delivering $68 million in revenue.  We faced a number of one-off costs over the year, including holiday pay remediation and redundancy provisions that have resulted in a net loss for the year of $2.9 million, slightly ahead of our budgeted loss of $3 million. That budgeted loss was partly a result of it becoming apparent during the year that projected revenue, including from reallocation of the Climate Emergency Response Fund, would not be realised during the year. Achieving this result in the challenging economic environment while delivering science excellence is testament to the efforts of our Board, management and staff.

As we reflect on Scion’s achievements over the year we look forward to a science, innovation and technology system that is able to deliver greater benefit to New Zealand, enabled by funding and investment better aligned to growing a decarbonised economy.  New Zealand needs to accelerate this transformation or risk being left behind.  It is essential that our science, innovation and technology sector is aligned to deliver on these great opportunities.

Please feel free to provide feedback and contact me directly on how we’re performing.

Dr Julian Elder
Chief Executive