The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) was a government science agency in New Zealand, founded in 1926 and broken into Crown Research Institutes in 1992.
Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1926 |
Preceding agencies |
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Dissolved | 1 April 1992 |
Superseding agency |
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Employees | 2,000 in 1976[1] |
Minister responsible |
DSIR was founded in 1926 by Ernest Marsden[1] after calls from Ernest Rutherford for government to support education and research[2] and on the back of the Imperial Economic Conference in London in October and November 1923, when various colonies discussed setting up such departments.[3] It initially received funding from sources such as the Empire Marketing Board.[4] The initial plans also included a new agricultural college, to be jointly founded by Auckland and Victoria University Colleges, Palmerston North was chosen as the site for this and it grew to become Massey University.[5]
DSIR initially had five divisions:[6]
The later Antarctic Division became Antarctica New Zealand in 1996.[8]
The Grasslands Division originally included the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute, which became the Fonterra Research and Development Centre in 2001.[9]
The following is a list of Directors-General (Chief Executive) of DSIR:[10]
Reconstituted into initially 10 semi-independent entities called Crown Research Institutes by the Crown Research Institutes Act 1992, with some further consolidation since.[11]