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Our history
A limited liability company fully owned by the New Zealand Government, IRL is one of the ten (now eight) Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) created in 1992.
Most of IRL’s current science and engineering capabilities were transferred from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), which was disbanded when the CRI[?] model was established.
As part of a comprehensive review of the New Zealand science system, R&D capability from the DSIR and other Government entities such as the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was divided up amongst the CRIs. Some capabilities fitted neatly within particular CRIs – for example pastoral agriculture research became AgResearch and horticulture R&D became HortResearch (now part of Plant and Food Research.)
What was termed secondary sector R&D – capability broadly in the manufacturing and industrial sectors – became IRL. In practice this meant IRL became home to a diverse range of R&D capability from carbohydrate chemistry for pharmaceutical ingredient development to advanced physics and engineering for new energy generation and distribution and the extraction of high value lipids from primary products like milk and fish for nutraceutical development.
Today, IRL continues to support a diverse range of New Zealand industries and focuses on using its world class science and engineering capabilities to enable these businesses to compete effectively on the world stage through increased productivity and profitability.