This report examines funding and resourcing for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). CSIRO sits at the heart of Australia’s national science and research ecosystem, driving the research and development that Australia needs to address its most important scientific challenges. 

This report sets out how, CSIRO’s research, including in partnership with industry, helps foster innovation and technological advancement, which in turn underpins Australia’s long-term economic growth and productivity. Central to the report is the question of whether current resourcing arrangements are sufficient to maintain Australia’s sovereign scientific capability and address increasingly complex national challenges. 

The report makes recommendations covering the following areas:

• recent and proposed CSIRO job losses and program cuts
• engagement with CSIRO staff affected by job losses and program cuts
• how Australia's sovereign public research capability can be protected in the face of funding cuts to the CSIRO
• CSIRO's financial sustainability
• CSIRO's strategic direction (including in light of the final review report for Ambitious Australia: Strategic Examination of Research and Development).