The New Zealand government Wednesday announced a list of 10 key scientific research areas -- covering public health, the environment, technology and disaster management -- for government funding in the annual budget to be announced this month.

Minister of Science and Innovations Steven Joyce said the budget would allocate an extra 73.5 million NZ dollars (62.99 million U.S. dollars) over four years for research into "some of the biggest science-based issues and opportunities facing New Zealand."

The funding was in addition to the 60 million NZ dollars allocated to the National Science Challenges last year.

The funding formed part of the internationally focused growth package to be announced in the budget, Joyce said in a statement.

"Our science system is an important part of our economic and people-to-people linkages to the wider world," Joyce said.

"The challenge research will assist New Zealand to become a bigger player in the identified areas of work, and provide opportunities for innovation and business development on the world stage."

The 10 research areas identified covered: the health of the elderly; the health of the young; major health problems; developing high nutrition foods; protecting biodiversity; land and water quality; sustainable marine resource exploitation; the role of the Antarctic in climate and environment changes; technological innovation; and resilience to natural disasters.

"We have a small and reasonably fragmented science system. Aligning and focusing research in this way will help the government and New Zealand to get better value from its annual investment of 1.3 billion NZ dollars in science and innovation," Joyce said. Endi

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