The business and science communities have welcomed a new report saying Crown research institutes (CRIs) are funded wrongly, lack direction and are short-term focused because of their reliance on contracts.

A CRI taskforce, headed by venture capitalist Neville Jordan, has been looking into how the most can be got out of the eight CRIs, which range from Niwa and GNS Science to AgResearch, Plant & Food, Landcare and Scion (forestry).

The review was to examine the purpose, governance and funding of CRIs, which were established in 1992.