The New Zealand government Wednesday announced a list of 10 key scientific research areas -- covering public health, the environment, technology and disaster management -- for government funding in the annual budget to be announced this month.

Minister of Science and Innovations Steven Joyce said the budget would allocate an extra NZ$73.5 million($62.99 million) over four years for research into "some of the biggest science-based issues and opportunities facing New Zealand."

The funding was in addition to the NZ$60 million allocated to the National Science Challenges last year.

The funding formed part of the internationally focused growth package to be announced in the budget, Joyce said in a statement.

"Our science system is an important part of our economic and people-to-people linkages to the wider world," Joyce said.

"The challenge research will assist New Zealand to become a bigger player in the identified areas of work, and provide opportunities for innovation and business development on the world stage."

The 10 research areas identified covered: the health of the elderly; the health of the young; major health problems; developing high nutrition foods; protecting biodiversity; land and water quality; sustainable marine resource exploitation; the role of the Antarctic in climate and environment changes; technological innovation; and resilience to natural disasters.

"We have a small and reasonably fragmented science system. Aligning and focusing research in this way will help the government and New Zealand to get better value from its annual investment of NZ$1.3 billion in science and innovation," Joyce said.