Committee: Economics References Committee
Date referred: 26 November 2025
Submissions close: 30 January 2026
Reporting date: 31 March 2026

Terms of Reference

Funding and resourcing for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), with particular reference to:

1. the nature of recent and proposed job and program cuts in the CSIRO;
2. the importance of public funding for public good science;
3. the importance of public resourcing of Australian sovereign scientific capability;
4. the recruitment and retention of staff including senior and mid-career researchers, along with the training and career paths of early-career researchers;
5. CSIRO’s commercialisation of scientific research;
6. the long-term capability needs of the CSIRO, including workforce, infrastructure and equipment;
7. the role and independence of the CSIRO’s leadership in making resourcing allocation decisions;
8. the effects of these cuts on the program of scientific work conducted by the CSIRO, including in relation to:
   1. areas of fundamental and basic scientific study that do not find ready industry funding partners,
   2. areas of scientific study that relate to emergent, pressing and/or priority issues like the pace, impact and mitigation of climate change including study of the oceans, biodiversity, agricultural adaption to a changing climate, and related issues, and
   3. the particular burden of proposed cuts on the Environment Research Unit; and
9. any related matters.