CSIRO welcomes the Australian Government’s short-term investment of $233 million, which enables us to take the first steps toward addressing our long-term sustainability challenges.
The significant funding announced today by the Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science Tim Ayres will enable CSIRO to continue to deliver research in priority areas, while we take immediate action to address urgent repairs and maintenance, strengthen cyber security and progress essential property consolidation planning. It will also allow us to maintain operations at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness.
We are grateful for this short-term support to commence these activities – ensuring we maintain safe and fit-for-purpose sites and technology while setting the course for long-term sustainability. However, achieving sustainability for CSIRO will require a sustained and significant investment over the next decade. CSIRO must retain the savings that will come from the recently announced changes to our research portfolio – which include an estimated reduction of 300-350 FTE roles – while also investing at least an additional $80-135 million per annum over the next 10 years into essential infrastructure and technology.
Changes to CSIRO’s Research Direction
As announced on 18 November 2025, CSIRO is making strategic science choices to evolve our research, focussing efforts where we can deliver the greatest national impact. This includes exiting research areas where we lack scale to achieve significant impact, or areas where others in the ecosystem are better placed to deliver.
CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Doug Hilton said that as Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO must always evolve its scientific focus to provide the research and development the nation needs.
“Over the past 100 years, we’ve evolved our scientific focus to help Australia thrive. We must continue to align our science to Australia’s most pressing challenges and focus our resources to tackle them at scale,” Dr Hilton said.
“These strategic changes are difficult but essential to ensure we can continue to deliver the science Australia needs in the years and decades ahead.”
Achieving long-term sustainability
Over the last 15 years CSIRO’s appropriation funding has risen by 1.3 per cent per annum with inflation rising by an average of 2.7 per cent over the same period. Our sustainability challenges are further compounded by steep rises in the cost of doing science and the cumulative impacts of an ageing property and infrastructure portfolio.
In addition to savings that will come from recently announced staffing changes, CSIRO needs to invest at least an additional $80-135 million per annum over the next 10 years to address these challenges. This includes funding critical repairs and maintenance to ensure safe and fit-for-purpose sites, and investing in the right research equipment, infrastructure and technology that best enables CSIRO’s researchers to invent and deploy solutions for national problems at scale.
Dr Hilton said this sustained investment is crucial to addressing CSIRO’s long-term financial sustainability challenge.
“As today's stewards of CSIRO, we are determined to set up our organisation to thrive. This is not a choice, but an imperative, as scientific research and development are at the core of Australia's future.” Dr Hilton said.