This report aims to help departments take biotechnology developments into consideration in policy development operations and implementation. Information about technology trends can be used at a number of steps in policy or strategy processes: to illuminate issues, to influence and formulate policy and to implement policy. Trend information is particularly valuable for the construction of future scenarios, which can be used for the development of business or national strategy.
To fully make sense of any technology developments, and to draw out relevant implications, requires an understanding of the current landscape of the technology, trends and projected patterns of usage, and also the context which both shapes, and is shaped by, the technology. This report covers these areas, with a strong focus on the technology trends.
Ultimately this work aims to help New Zealand make better and more timely decisions that relate to biotechnology. However, it is not our job here to say what these decisions should or could be. We believe this sort of consideration should be an interactive process, involving a wider range of knowledge and perspectives than we have drawn on to prepare this report. As with many future thinking exercises, the process, or means of getting the answer, is at least as important as the answer itself. This is work we plan to lead and stimulate through our ongoing work programme.