---
title: "Science and technology in Pacific Island countries"
chunk: 2/6
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Pacific_Island_countries"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:38:13.011932+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Regional bodies addressing technological issues ===
Both the largest and smallest Pacific nations acknowledge that taking a regional approach to science and technology offers them greater opportunities for institutional development. This approach is encapsulated in the Framework for Pacific Regionalism (2014). All 14 nations have mandated the agencies attached to the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP) to conduct technical backstopping. CROP agencies partially fulfill the role that a science council might play in other regions. However, none of these agencies has a specific mandate or policy for science and technology.
Pacific Island states have established a number of regional bodies to address technological issues for sectorial development. Examples are the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific, such as the Pacific Community (SPC); Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat; and Secretariat of the Pacific Region Environmental Programme.
The Ministers of Education from Pacific Island countries signed a Ministerial communiqué on Pacific Science, Technology and Innovation in 2017, in which they committed to developing regional and national STI policies and roadmaps. However, no policy or roadmap has since been published for want of resources.
The 2014 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway (SAMOA Pathway) identified science and technology as being critical to SIDS’ sustainable development.
The need for research is being recognized at the regional level. The Pacific Community Centre for Ocean Science was established in New Caledonia in 2015, hosted by SPC. Construction of the Pacific Climate Change Centre was completed in Apia, Samoa in 2019 (see below).

=== Pacific–Europe Network for Science, Technology and Innovation ===

The establishment of the Pacific–Europe Network for Science, Technology and Innovation (PACE-Net Plus) goes some way towards filling the void in science policy, at least temporarily. Funded by the European Commission within its Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2007–2013), this project has spanned the period 2013–2016 and thus overlaps with the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme.
The objectives of PACE–Net Plus are to reinforce the dialogue between the Pacific region and Europe in science, technology and innovation; to support biregional research and innovation through calls for research proposals; and to promote scientific excellence and industrial and economic competition. Ten of its 16 members come from the Pacific region and the remainder from Europe.
The Pacific partners are the Australian National University, Montroix Pty Ltd (Australia), University of the South Pacific, Institut Malardé in French Caledonia, National Centre for Technological Research into Nickel and its Environment in New Caledonia, South Pacific Community, Landcare Research Ltd in New Zealand, University of Papua New Guinea, Samoa National University and the Vanuatu Cultural Centre.
The other six partners are: the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Institut de recherche pour le développement in France, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and the European Union, the Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação, United Nations Industrial Development Organization and Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology in Germany.
PACE-Net Plus focuses on three societal challenges:

Health, demographic change and well-being;
Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research and the bio-economy; and
Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials.
PACE–Net Plus has organized a series of high-level policy dialogue platforms alternately in the Pacific region and in Brussels, the headquarters of the European Commission. These platforms bring together key government and institutional stakeholders in both regions, around STI issues.
A conference held in Suva (Fiji) in 2012 under the umbrella of PACE–Net Plus produced recommendations for a strategic plan for research, innovation and development in the Pacific. The conference report published in 2013 identified R&D needs in the Pacific in seven areas:

health;
agriculture and forestry;
fisheries and aquaculture;
biodiversity and ecosystem management;
freshwater;
natural hazards; and
energy.

=== Pacific Islands University Research Network ===

Noting the general absence of regional and national policies and plans for science, technology and innovation in the Pacific, the PACE–Net Plus conference established the Pacific Islands University Research Network to support intra- and inter- regional knowledge creation and sharing and to prepare succinct recommendations for the development of a regional policy framework for science, technology and innovation.
This formal research network will complement the Fiji-based University of the South Pacific, which has campuses in other Pacific Island countries.

=== Importance of data to inform policy ===
It was intended for the policy role of the Pacific Islands University Research Network to be informed by evidence gleaned from measuring capability in science, technology and innovation but the absence of data presents a formidable barrier. As of 2015, only Fiji had recent data on expenditure on research and development (R&D) and there were no recent data on researchers and technicians for any of the developing Pacific island countries.
Without relevant data, it will be difficult for developing Pacific Island states to monitor their progress towards Sustainable Development target 9.5, namely: Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending. The two indicators chosen by the United Nations to measure progress are research and development expenditure as a proportion of GDP (9.5.1) and Researchers (in full-time equivalent) per million inhabitants (9.5.2).
Efforts to collate and co-ordinate regional and national data are growing. Such efforts include the PRISM database from the SPC Statistics for Development Division and the national and regional environmental data portals created by countries with the support of the Inform Project.

== National policy issues ==

=== Fiji ===