OIA response J Bruning 6.07.21.pdf

6 July 2021

J Bruning
By email: [FYI request #15610 email]

Dear J Bruning

Official Information Act Request: CIBR funding

On 31 May 2021 you sent a request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) to ESR as
follows:

Please can ESR provide information regarding:

1.  Annual  funding  provided  to  ESR  to  fund  the  Centre  for  Integrated  Biowaste  Research
(CIBR)  for  the  years  2017-2021  (recognising  CIBR  is  virtual  and  that  monies  may  be
distributed between allied institutes).

2. CIBR budgets/annual reporting including details (as an itemized list of projects, including
budget for each project) of all research and/or monitoring projects.

3.  Information  held  with ESR  or  CIBR  regarding:  (a)  Reports  relating  to regional  emissions
monitoring of trace elements/legacy chemicals/contaminants of emerging concern in biosolids
released  to  land,  or  in  influent  wastewater(b)  Analytical  reports  relating  to  the  toxicity  and
environmental  and  human  health  risk  of  trace  elements/legacy  chemicals/contaminants  of
emerging  concern  and  their  metabolites  in  post-treatment  (influent)  waste-water  and
biosolids/biowaste/sewage  sludge  released  to  the  environment.  (c)  Reports  concerning  the
environmental fate and/or persistence of present chemical compounds and their metabolites
in  post-treatment  waste-water  and  biosolids/biowaste/sewage  sludge/influent  wastewater
released to the environment.

(d) Analysis, reporting, discussion or policy advice relating to policy development, regulation
and best practice treatment and extraction technologies in high income nation states.

4. Emails, correspondence, advice concerning the funding or withdrawal of funding of CIBR,
between  (a)  ESR  staff;  -    and  (b)  Emails,  correspondence,  advice  between  ESR  staff  and
external Ministries or authorities concerning the funding of CIBR.

Our response to your request:

The Centre for Integrated Biowaste Research (CIBR) is the name that a group of collaborators
from ESR, Cawthron Institute, Landcare Research, Scion and University of Lincoln (and later
the University of Canterbury) gave to a project funded by ESR's Strategic Science Investment
Fund (SSIF) to create an umbrella to work collaboratively and in a multidisciplinary way in this
research field. CIBR was first funded by ESR in 2013  with  the fund finishing in June 2020.
CIBR  was  never  a  legal  entity;  it  was  an  ESR  SSIF  funded  project.  All  the  work,  reports,
experiments etc, completed under the CIBR project are set out in the annual reports to ESR.
Please  see  the  annual  reports  attached  to  this  response  at  Appendix  1.  All  the  results  are
published  in  the  scientific  papers  listed  in  the  reports  and  can  be  accessed  online  in  each

journal, in the CIBR newsletters that are publicly available on the CIBR webpage, and on the
webpage: http://www.cibr.org.nz/

In answer to your specific questions:

1.  ESR is the entity that funded the CIBR project through ESR's Strategic Science Investment
Fund  (SSIF)  which  is  ultimately  funded  by  the  Ministry  of  Business,  Innovation  and
Employment.  The  CIBR  project  was  funded  by  ESR's  SSIF  as  follows:  $1,413,085  in
FY2017-2018,  $1,413,085  in  FY2018-2019  and  $1,530,059  in  FY2019-2020,  totalling
$4,356,229 for the three years. Those funds included funding our external collaborators
Cawthron  Institute,  Landcare  Research,  Scion,  University  of  Lincoln,  University  of
Canterbury, NIWA, Northcott Research Associates, and Kukupa Research.

2.  The CIBR project was funded by ESR's SSIF as explained in our response to the previous
question. We attach all the annual reports, not only from 2017, but from the launch of the
project  in  2013  at  Appendix  1.  In  the  annual  reports  there  is  a  list  of  outputs  including
conference  presentations,  scientific  papers,  and  reports  that  CIBR  produced.  All  the
reports are publicly available on the CIBR webpage, including the regular newsletters.

3.  All the reports requested by you at question 3 are listed in the annual reports. The work
that we have performed is scientific research  - we have not done regular monitoring  as
part of the CIBR project. If monitoring has been required for some specific experiments it
is  recorded  in  the  reports  listed  in  the  annual  reports,  and  is  publicly  available  on  the
webpages specified in the reports.

4.  The email correspondence concerning the funding of CIBR is mainly internal between the
project leader and the ESR research office. These are annual emails with the call for SSIF
applications  and  the  responses  from  the  research  office  confirming  whether  the  project
was successful in obtaining the funds. Due to the substantial amount of work that would
be  required  to  locate  and  collate  email  correspondence  dating  back  to  2013,  we  are
refusing this request under section 18(f) of the OIA. However, an example of the annual
email  correspondence  regarding  CIBR  and  SSIF  funding  can  be  found  in  Appendix  2
below.

Your right to seek a review

You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.

Thank you for your request.

Yours sincerely

Libby Harrison
Joint General Manager Health and Environment - Environment

Appendix 1: List of attached final reports

-
2014-08-29_HORSWELL_CIBR annual report 2013 2014 250814
-
HORSWELL CIBR annual report 2014 2015 DRAFT
-
Horswell CIBR annual report 2015-2016_MASTER COPY 20160712
-
CIBR annual report 2016-2017_FINAL
-
Guiterrez_CIBR_Final rprt 2017-18
-
CIBR_SSIF End of FY2018_19
-
CIBR_2019_20 SSIF Final Report_end

Pending and unsuccessful grant proposals submitted may be revisited by ESR in the future.
Therefore, grant proposals submitted that are listed as pending or unsuccessful are withheld
under section 9(2)(b)(ii) of the OIA, as making the information available would be likely to
unreasonably prejudice the commercial position of ESR.

Information relating to subcontracts and co-funding is also withheld under section 9(2)(b)(ii)
of the OIA, as making the information available would be likely to unreasonably prejudice the
commercial position of ESR and the subjects of the information.

Names of students listed in the final reports are withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA to
protect the privacy of natural persons.

Appendix 2: Annual email correspondence example

REMINDER: SSIF applications due this Friday! Please note, the recently corrected Costing
Model is attached here.

Call for proposals for the ESR STRATEGIC SCIENCE INVESTMENT FUND PROCESS
FY2021

•       Applications should be made on the appropriate attached application form: New
projects will use the New Projects form, and if your project is continuing next year from
current funding, then the Continuing Form
•       The application form should be no longer than four pages excluding the cover page,
milestone and budget tables, references and CVs.
•       Al  applications MUST have a signature from the appropriate line manager(s).
•       Applications should be completed and submitted as a Word document using Arial 11
point font and single-spaced.

Forward your applications to [name withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA to protect
privacy]@esr.cri.nz in the Research Office no later than noon, on Friday, February 28th
2020.

Projects will be assessed by a review panel consisting of the Chief Scientist, both
operational GMs, Principal Advisor Māori Impact, and senior scientists, and
recommendations made to SLT. External reviews may be requested by the panel.
The project proposals will be assessed for:
•            science excellence
•            alignment with strategy

•            contribution to ESR’s impacts
•            enhanced collaborations and capability development
•            contribution to Vision Mātauranga and improved outcomes for Māori

Customer requirements and co-funding/commercial advantage will also be taken into
consideration. The SLT will review the recommendations of the panel and additionally
assess projects for strategic fit with ESR and business group plans. Recommendations will
go to the Board for approval. The two application forms for continuing and new SSIF
proposals.

Sent: Thursday, 25 June 2020 2:11 p.m.
To: [name withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA to protect privacy]>
Cc:
Subject: SSIF FY2021

Dear [name withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA to protect privacy],
Thank-you for your application for SSIF for FY2020. Unfortunately your project “Wai and
Circular Economy“ has not been successful at this time. There were 18 excellent
applications for the unallocated SSIF and we could only fund ten of these. We would be
happy to provide feedback on the project if you wish and I can set up a meeting for myself
and [name withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA to protect privacy] to discuss the
project.
As you are aware ESR was awarded an additional $3M SSIF and we are currently working
with MBIE on our SSIF contract variation. Once this has been finalised we will be working
with staff to allocate the money as soon as possible in line with MBIE’s expectations.

Please inform your project participants of the decision.

Kind regards,

[name withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA to protect privacy]
on behalf of SLT and the Board