New Zealand Journal of Forestry (2009) 54(3): 47
©New Zealand Institute of Forestry

Letter to the Editor
Good research is more than problem solving

Wink Sutton



Sir The editorial in the last issue of this journal included the statement that “forestry research seems to have lost its sparkle” and that the March meeting of the Future Forests Research radiata pine theme was a disappointment. The editorial then asked “where was the infectious excitement of previous years?” My reasoning is that this is a result of how research is now funded where most is directed towards problem solving or service orientated research. Almost no funds are directed to the much more exciting innovation research. When I was in research I was sometimes asked: “what problem are you currently working on”. My reply was that we rarely work on problems as most of our effort was directed at opportunities. If there was a problem it was us!
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