Meanwhile, Prime Minister John Key says he saw a ''spring in the step'' of Dunedin people during his last visit to the city.
Last week, AgResearch announced it was shifting 85 Invermay jobs north, retaining 30.
Staff have told the Otago Daily Times they doubted any staff left at Invermay would use existing buildings, including the one which cost $17 million to build five years ago.
The university has pledged to work with AgResearch to try to retain sufficient capability at Invermay to support the successful collaborative research programmes.
In a submission to the summit called by Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull, being held in the city on Wednesday, deputy vice-chancellor research and enterprise Prof Richard Blaikie said the university used services from Invermay to support joint research programmes in reproduction, genomics and animal research and also in environmental research and food science.
That was currently through interactions with 11 departments in the university. In the past five years, there had been more than 60 research projects jointly supported with AgResearch, with a large number of those at Invermay, Prof Blaikie said.
''We recognise the right of AgResearch to determine their future structure and will continue to work with them as effectively as we can in whatever new campus configuration they have.
''We note that much of the benefit from joint research comes through regular face-to-face interaction between our Dunedin campus and the Invermay site, which will be lost with significant downsizing at Invermay.''
The university was concerned about the potential loss of a large and successful element of research capability in Dunedin.
''We need to identify the need to retain strong and vibrant business and research organisations in our region to support our activities and provide local employment options for our graduates,'' Prof Blaikie said.
Otago-Southland Employers Association chief executive John Scandrett said AgResearch was a ''senior member'' of the association because of its BusinessNZ ''major companies group'' commitment.
In the region, AgResearch interacted widely with a range of regional businesses.
Examples included the meat processing and exporting industry, dairying and other agribusiness operations, local government services provision and long-standing collaborative research relationships with partners such as the University of Otago.
''The Invermay client base, virtually without exception, are also association members and at this point, they, as we do, carry real concerns about the potential staff downsizing the proposed AgResearch steps may potentially deliver.''
Faced with the prospect of Invermay staff changes and the negative impact they would have for the regional social and business communities, the association had taken early steps to contact AgResearch chief executive Tom Richardson and other executives, Mr Scandrett said.
The aim was to work closely, constructively and confidentially on reviewing options for reshaping and/or retaining the Invermay presence and the associated range of specialist service expertise and research and development capabilities.
''Our involvement in this process is widely recognising the interest of our other association members and the intent is that we must effectively connect those interest areas and concerns with the overall redefined AgResearch objections.''
The association board and executive were as concerned as anyone about the serious slippage in regional economic growth and associated barriers being faced in employment.
Prime Minister John Key said on Radio Dunedin yesterday the Government was doing a lot around regional development and he felt Dunedin was doing ''extremely well''.
Speaking to Neil Collins, Mr Key said the last time in was in Dunedin, people seemed to have a ''spring in their step''.
On one level, Dunedin residents needed to make sure they did not talk jobs down into negative territory.
AgResearch was a Crown Research Institute and not directly controlled by the Government, he said.
While one region would be unhappy about the centralisation planned by the CRI, another would be happy with the process, Mr Key said.