At this week's Vincent Community Board meeting, Mr Lepper said he ''had a lot of sympathy'' for Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull. Mr Cull has called a ''summit meeting'' on August 14 to discuss the announcement that 85 jobs will go from Invermay by 2016.
''Although this is sort of a Dunedin problem, it will have a flow-on effect for us - we need Dunedin,'' Mr Lepper said.
Two jobs were cut at Niwa's Lauder station a year ago, despite protests from the international science community.
Mr Lepper said the news about the pending AgResearch cuts prompted him to ''do some research'' into the viability of another Crown research institute based in Central Otago - Plant and Food Research at Clyde.
''I'm told they have funding for the next 18 months or more, so they're not under any threat at the moment,'' he said.
Like the work done at Invermay, the research done at Clyde had a valuable spin-off for primary producers.
