The Next Generation of Biopesticides: Institutional barriers and enablers to co-innovation in a science and commercialisation programme

The international market for biopesticides is growing rapidly. Biopesticides are not widely used in New Zealand as there are few available that target New Zealand's pest complexes, production systems and regulatory hurdles. The Next Generation Biopesticides programme aims to develop and commercialise biopesticides for NZ's pastoral, horticultural and arable sectors. A multi-level institutional framework was used to diagnose the enablers and barriers to co-innovation within the NGB programme and the biopesticides innovation system. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and during three workshops. The results showed differences between sectors in their perception of the programme and the use of co-innovation based on: i) institutional incentives for co-innovation within research organisations; ii) ownership of IP and technologies by stakeholders; iii) differing levels of urgency for new biopesticide solutions in each sectoral innovation system; and iv) the ease with which biopesticides integrate into the sector value chains.