A Senate Inquiry into 'funding and resourcing for the CSIRO' was established in November 2025 and examines a broad range of topics including CSIRO's long-term sustainability and proposed changes to our workforce as we reshape our research portfolio.
For 100 years, CSIRO has been entrusted with public funding and has delivered research that has underpinned Australia's prosperity, resilience and global competitiveness.
CSIRO has made a submission to the inquiry which demonstrates:
- the value that CSIRO's research delivers to the Australian community
- the long-term financial sustainability challenges CSIRO faces, and
- the importance of our making strategic changes to our research portfolio to achieve impact at scale, on behalf of the nation.
The inquiry reflects the significant public interest in CSIRO and the value placed on its contribution to the nation over generations.
Read CSIRO's full submission .
Quotes attributable to CSIRO Chief Executive, Dr Doug Hilton:
"CSIRO is acutely aware of its accountability to the Australian community and its elected representatives in parliament and welcomes the Senate's decision to establish the inquiry.
"Australians understand the impact that science has on their lives and on the future of the nation. This inquiry is testament to the concern and interest their elected representatives have in Australia's national science agency. So, it is a welcome discussion for us – as both an organisation and as a community – to be having at this time.
"Our inquiry submission offers a frank and transparent assessment of the complex challenges facing CSIRO, and why we must make difficult but necessary decisions to ensure a sustainable and enduring national science agency for the decades ahead."
