A laboratory building.

CSIRO’s site at Clayton, Victoria is part of a growing research hub.

Melbourne: Clayton, Vic (Clayton laboratories)

Clayton is CSIRO’s largest site in Victoria and is home to a variety of research areas and our National Enquiries Centre.

  • 1 December 2005

Location summary

Located adjacent to Monash University and the Australian Synchrotron, CSIRO’s Clayton site is part of a growing research hub. Clayton is a suburb of Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria, and is about 25 km south-east of centre of the city of Melbourne.

More than 800 staff members work at Clayton on projects designed to benefit the community and industries, including:

  • energy
  • mineral resources
  • manufacturing
  • chemical
  • health
  • information
  • agribusiness.

The CSIRO National Enquiries Centre at Clayton connects Australian and international enquirers to CSIRO research and activities. 

Several CSIRO corporate groups are also located at Clayton, including:

The Clayton site is part of a growing research hub, including some services, many Flagship research projects and emerging science initiatives.
  • Business Development & Commercialisation
  • CSIRO Global
  • Information, Manufacturing & Minerals Group Executive.

Location activities

Our research at Clayton includes:

  • improving industrial processes, through research into:
    • computational fluid dynamics
    • automotive and manufacturing innovations
    • decision making in supply chains
    • quantitative risk management
    • waste treatment and management.
  • energy, mining and minerals research, including:
    • improving mineral processing and metal production
    • increasing recovery of oil and gas
    • reducing costs of gas production, transportation and processing
    • the origination and formation of gold orebodies.
  • improving energy technology, such as:
    • energy storage and conversion
    • better fuel cells.
  • advanced materials and nanotechnology, including:
    • chemical synthesis and scale-up
    • tissue engineering
    • nanobiotechnology
    • bioprocessing
    • conductive polymers
    • carbon nanotube yarns
    • smart textiles
    • medical textiles
    • advanced fibres.

We also supply services, such as:

  • research services based on mathematics, statistics and operations research
  • materials characterisation and microscopy.

Clayton is the site of many Flagship research projects, including:

  • low-emission energy technologies
  • reducing greenhouse gas emissions through carbon dioxide sequestration
  • breakthrough technologies for aluminium, magnesium and titanium production and manufacture
  • light metals sheet and alloy technology.

We are engaged in emerging science initiatives, such as:

  • nanotechnology
  • security and counter-terrorism
  • sustainable cities
  • synchrotron research.


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