Colin J. Webb 1949 – 2023

Reflections on Colin Webb and the science and tertiary education systems

I first met Colin Webb in 1995 on his first day at FRST (“the Foundation”) as our new Manager, Funding.  This was one of the toughest management jobs in the science system. I asked Colin how his first few days in Wellington had been and he told me how well his cat, Roy, had adjusted.  This was my first taste of Colin’s serene, existential calm – as well as his love of cats. When speaking at my wedding Colin claimed that cats were indirectly responsible for the rise of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent since they controlled rodents that would otherwise destroy the harvest.

Colin’s career up till 1995 was in science delivery, rather than the policy, strategy, funding and evaluation side which the scientists often saw as bureaucratic overhead.

Some history is useful.  The DSIR was established in 1926 to help meet New Zealand’s public good science needs at a time when our universities were under-developed. Together with other government-owned laboratories it was basically bulk-funded and self-directed.  Private sector research was limited to applied technology, except for some industry collective research associations.

Under the system in place, the market for researchers in basic science was monopsonistic.  That is, government was a dominant “buyer” of research outputs and it controlled the price paid for them. There was a thin market for research scientists, However, Government-owned research organisations such as DSIR and MAF provided high job security and reasonable remuneration.

Very little money was allocated competitively.  Some argued that this let scientists focus on science, not on filling in grant applications, however others argued it led to complacency or to Leibensteinian X-inefficiency (in the economics jargon).

FRST’s job was to create a market for science, however those immersed in Kenneth Arrow’s work and in Paul Romer’s new growth theory saw that the nature of knowledge creation and of non-rival goods meant the science system could not be run like a fish market. The 1990s was a lean time for public finances and there was concern that restructuring the science system would lead to funding cuts and job losses. However, MoRST’s Chief Executive, Basil Walker, was wily and had the intellectual heft to ensure the structural changes built Ministers’ confidence that science was a good thing to invest in.

The question was whether to run a competitive system with a lot of money shifting at any one time or whether to run a contestable system where an existing institution could retain a near monopoly and still be efficient.  Contestable markets theory was developed by William Baumol and gave confidence that dominant market institutions could be efficient when they faced the threat rather than the actuality of competition.  When Colin Webb joined FRST he quickly became familiar with the behavioural psychology and sociology of the science and later the tertiary education system.  He co-authored a fine paper on game theory with his predecessor in his role, Sean Devine. They applied the theory as it related to the behavioural incentives of the science providers.

In the post-World War Two period the universities became more active in basic research, some research associations grew, and some companies became significant players in advanced technological development.  For example, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare came into being in 1969 from collaboration between Dr Matt Spence, an Auckland hospital intensive care specialist, Alf Melville, a DSIR technician, and Dave O’Hare, a Fisher and Paykel engineer.  

From 1989 to 1992 the science reforms saw the separation between MoRST (policy), FRST (funding), and the undertaking of research.  DSIR and other government laboratories were established as CRIs. CRIs had to bid for funding from FRST, and this funding was allocated within MoRST’s broad science priorities.  FRST developed research strategies that created the link between the priority outcomes government sought and what the Foundation funded. 

Colin Webb was first and foremost a field scientist working in basic research. He was an international leader in evolutionary plant science.  Botany favoured outdoors-oriented, fit people who could tolerate the odd nasty insect sting in exotic places. Colin kept fit in the gym.  He drew very well, and his works included meticulous drawings of plants and seeds.

When I sought input into draft papers I’d written, I liked people to write their comments in red pen. Colin insisted on doing so in pencil and that was the end of the matter.

He was a master of recreational chess and of Go.   He showed how a poem or great prose was the best language to speak in difficult moments.  When he left Landcare, rather than give a farewell speech he read a poem.  When his close friend and research collaborator David Lloyd lay gravely ill Colin sat at his bedside reading him Frank Sargeson stories.  Matt McGlone introduced Colin to Flann O’Brien’s writings whenceforth the word spread, and among Colin’s literati friends no respectable personal library is absent a copy of The Third Policeman or At Swim-Two-Birds. 

As he eased into retirement Colin took up tramping and mountaineering in the Himalayas. There is something about mountains that turns the secular sacred and offers blessings for us merely mortal. 

He made friends with a sherpa, and deepened that friendship over a series of expeditions.  He got to know the wider community and financed generously the education of some poorer village children.  Eventually he was able to assist the sherpa, his wife and children to settle in New Zealand.

Colin lived multiple lives and few saw him from a 360 degree perspective.  I was a professional colleague, friend and wine tasting crony of Colin for many years without realising he shared my interest in chess and great literature.  In retrospect I am not surprised to learn of his interest in Go and in game theory.  Colin was like the W.D Hamilton of his branch of evolutionary botany.

FRST had an unusual governance system. Its empowering Act created its Board, not an organisation with a board.  This meant that the FRST’s Board was FRST and it had the decision rights.   The senior staff worked directly to the Board. This worked well because it reduced the information asymmetry between the Board and the bureaucracy. 

The Tertiary Education Advisory Commission (TEAC) was formed in 2000 to advise on tertiary education and this led to the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). The TEC is a funder and responsible for shaping the system and implementing priorities.  As with FRST, the TEC was its board.  Colin was heavily involved in TEC’s design and establishment, and this reflected what he learnt in FRST.

Colin had deep concerns for the less well-off, without being performative or virtue signalling about it.  Like Cordelia he lacked the glib and oily art to speak and purpose not. From the beginning in TEC he saw adult literacy and numeracy problems as unacceptable barriers to participation in life.  He echoed those views in his farewell words from TEC.

At his funeral service, in accordance with Sherpa tradition, as the flower-laden coffin was placed in the hearse the only sound was silence.

Colin, you left us too early.  I’m sure you could have explained Finnegan’s Wake to me over a red wine.  And before you go I could open another bottle and you could guide me through Karl Friston’s free energy theory?  And that is all I can write through these tears.