AgResearch's innovation science hubs are a step closer with the appointment of a company to manage the campus relocation plans.
Christchurch-based The Project Office will manage plans for Agresearch's part of the Lincoln Hub at Lincoln and the Food-HQ hub at Palmerston North.
The hubs will bring together universities, researchers, sector and private interests at two sites where they can collaborate on specific areas of science.
Agresearch chief executive Tom Richardson said tighter links between the groups would deliver better science but also help to retain and attract talented people.
The hubs have the support of Lincoln and Massey universities and Dairy NZ.
However, the hubs, which involve the relocation of hundreds of AgResearch staff away from Waikato and Otago, have not been universally popular with farmers.
Many fear AgResearch will lose scientists who refuse to make the shift and that it will not be able to continue its work in those regions.
