AgResearch was created along with New Zealand's other
Crown Research Institutes in 1992. In AgResearch's case, this was largely by merging the pastoral agriculture-related portions of MAFTech (the research arm of the then
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) which had predominantly carried out animal research, with the agriculture-related portions of
DSIR, which had predominantly carried out research on forage plants. AgResearch has grown over time by acquiring research organisations "down" the value stream from its initial on-farm emphasis, such as the former
Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand (
MIRINZ) in 1999 and the former
Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (
WRONZ, which had been rebranded as
Canesis) in 2007. In March 2009 AgResearch announced that it planned to merge with
Lincoln University, but that was subsequently changed to an intention to form a joint venture. A plan called "Future Footprint" was announced in 2013 to concentrate resources at the Grasslands site in Palmerston North and Lincoln campus near Christchurch. This involved the transfer of about 200 staff mostly from Ruakura (Hamilton) and Invermay (Dunedin) sites. There were reports that a substantial number of staff left the CRI after Future Footprint was announced and staff morale was poor with redundancies being considered in September 2015. About 50 scientific staff were made redundant in 2016. The government approved the restructure in June 2016. These changes were not eventually implemented due to staff backlash and resignations so the genomics teams remain at Invermay. On 14 May 2025,
Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology Shane Reti announced that AgResearch would be integrated into a new
Public Research Organisation called the
New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science from 1 July 2025. ==Organisation==