Terms of reference

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

(a)the nature of recent and proposed job and program cuts in the CSIRO;

(b)the importance of public funding for public good science;

(c)the importance of public resourcing of Australian sovereign scientific capability;

(d)the recruitment and retention of staff including senior and mid-career researchers, along with the training and career paths of early-career researchers;

(e)CSIRO’s commercialisation of scientific research;

(f)the long-term capability needs of the CSIRO, including workforce, infrastructure and equipment;

(g)the role and independence of the CSIRO’s leadership in making resourcing allocation decisions;

(h)the effects of these cuts on the program of scientific work conducted by the CSIRO, including in relation to:

(i)areas of fundamental and basic scientific study that do not find ready industry funding partners,

(ii)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

(iii)the particular burden of proposed cuts on the Environment Research Unit; and

(i)any related matters.