The CSIRO will make hundreds of scientists redundant in the lead up to Christmas while “sharpening” its research structure, as the agency reckons with a budget cliff and decades of declining funding.
Up to 350 CSIRO research redundancies were confirmed on Tuesday following an all staff and union meeting, but exactly which roles will go remain unclear.
It is the largest loss of permanent researchers resulting from the CSIRO’s one-off pandemic funding ending, which has already resulted in cuts to more than 800 temporary and support service roles.
The looming redundancies have raised warnings that staff already asked to do more with fewer support staff face increasing psychological risks at work.
It’s left morale and faith in CSIRO leadership close to rock bottom, one source told InnovationAus.com.
CSIRO Staff Association secretary Susan Tonks called it “a sad day for publicly funded science” and criticised the Albanese government for presiding over cuts it said exceeded the Abbot government.
“These are some the worst cuts the CSIRO has ever seen, and they’re coming at a time when we should be investing in and building up public science,” Ms Tonks said.
“CSIRO undertakes incredibly important work that benefits Australian families, communities, and the world. Our scientists are protecting crops from disease, building national resilience in the face of a changing climate, strengthening our defences against biosecurity risks, and driving innovation in health and technology.”
The agency’s chief executive Doug Hilton said “these are difficult but necessary changes” for the agency to survive.
“As today’s stewards of CSIRO, we have a responsibility to make decisions that ensure we can continue to deliver science that improves the lives of all Australians for generations to come,” Mr Hilton said in a statement.
“We must set up CSIRO for the decades ahead with a sharpened research focus that capitalises on our unique strengths, allows us to concentrate on the profound challenges we face as a nation and deliver solutions at scale.”
Between 300 and 350 full-time equivalent will be cut to achieve a “sharpened research focus”, a CSIRO statement said.
The changes will see CSIRO research conducted under six “key focus areas” of clean energy and critical minerals; climate change; advanced technologies like AI and quantum; agricultural technology; biosecurity; and “disruptive science and engineering” to solve unanswered questions.
The science agency has been operating under 11 research units and until last year had also used several standalone research missions like ending plastic waste and achieving net zero as well.
The planned changes appear to leave current standalone research units like manufacturing, space and astronomy, and marine science on the outer or needing to shoehorn into the new areas.
CSIRO would not provide additional information on the extent of the changes to its research units, with staff consultations on the redundancies to begin this week but take months.
The latest cuts come after the end of one-off pandemic funding awarded to the agency in 2020 to compensate for a predicted drop in external revenue.
But the CSIRO has also suffered from steadily declining government funding per capita and as a share of GDP.
The Albanese government has made only minor increases to CSIRO funding, mostly to upgrade decades old facilities and biosecurity research.
According to its union, the CSIRO is now operating with around 1100 fewer staff – around 17 per cent less — than under the Abbot government.
“The Albanese Labor Government needs to fix this mess by committing to urgent funding that halts the cuts and secures the future of CSIRO’s world-leading science and research,” Ms Tonks said.
On Tuesday, Science minister Tim Ayres said the redundancies follow an 18-month review of CSIRO’s research portfolio and other parts of the national research system will undertake the work CSIRO scales back on.
“Reform is essential to make sure the facilities, research priorities and technologies of yesterday meet the needs of tomorrow… Reprioritisation is difficult but essential to maintain Australia’s scientific and innovation leadership role for the benefit of Australians,” Mr Ayres said in a statement.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.