Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

In 2016 CSIRO launched its "Innovation Catalyst" Strategy which focused on solving Australia's Innovation Dilemma, it generated $10,000,000,000 more social, economic, and environmental value than any prior strategy, and trained 3,500 researchers from across 32 Universities on the process of innovation, and became the first Australian entity of any kind to reach the Thomson Reuters Global Top 25 Innovators.

In March 2025, research from Pollster DemosAU identified the CSIRO as Australia's second most trusted national institution, behind the Bureau of Meteorology.

Achievements

National Research "Flagships" launched in 2003, expanded 2007 to $250,000,000 in research funding

Sues Global Chip makers over WiFi Patent infringement 2005, wins $205,000,000 in 2009, and $105,000,000 by 2016

Dr Cathy Foley becomes CSIRO's first Chief Scientist in 2018, then Australia's Chief Scientist in 2021

CSIRO becomes first Australian entity to reach the Thomson Reuters Global Top 25 Innovators, beating NASA in 2018

Health Business Unit is created in 2016, enables scale up and, in partnership with CSL, mass production of Australia's only COVID vaccine in 2020, and invests $450,000,000 to create Australian Center for Disease Preparedness

CSIRO makes first acquisition, NICTA creating Australia's largest Digital and AI group

"ON" becomes Australia's first National Science Accelerator, training 3,500 university researchers across 33 institutions, and beating the prestigious US iCorps program by 2018, with 300% higher financial outcomes, diversity, and innovation ecosystem penetration

Female leadership doubles by 2020, bringing CSIRO into the Sage "green" zone for gender equity for first time in 100y

CSIRO marches in Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras for first time, CEO joins

Main Sequence Ventures is created in 2017 as first Venture Capital fund inside government, becomes $1,000,000,000 top-quartile global fund

By 2023 "Innovation Catalyst" strategy creates $10,000,000,000 more value than any prior strategy, and $400,000,000 per year greater investment in science

CSIRO wins Roy Morgan Most Trusted Brand for first time in 2022

CSIRO achieves first emissions reduction in 100y, reaching 83% of Net Zero by 2022

Inventions

Notable inventions and breakthroughs by CSIRO include:

A4 DSP chip

Aerogard, insect repellent

Atomic absorption spectroscopy

Biological control of Salvinia

Development of Linola (a flax variety with low alpha-linolenic acid content) with a longer life used as a stockfeed

Distance measuring equipment (DME) used for aviation navigation

Gene shears

Interscan Microwave landing system, a microwave approach and landing system for aircraft

Use of myxomatosis and calicivirus to control rabbit numbers

Parkes Radio Telescope

The permanent pleat for fabrics

Plasma sintering

Polymer banknote

Production of metals from their halides

Relenza flu drug

Sirosmelt lance

"Softly" woollens detergent

Phase-contrast X-ray imaging

Method to use titanium in 3D printing

UltraBattery

Essential components of Wi-Fi technology

Zebedee – Mobile Handheld 3D Lidar Mapping technology

Historic research

CSIRO had a pioneering role in the scientific discovery of the universe through radio "eyes". A team led by Paul Wild built and operated (from 1948) the world's first solar radiospectrograph, and from 1967 the 3-kilometre-diameter (1.9 mi) radioheliograph at Culgoora in New South Wales. For three decades, the Division of Radiophysics had a world-leading role in solar research, attracting prominent solar physicists from around the world.

CSIRO owned the first computer in Australia, CSIRAC, built as part of a project began in the Sydney Radiophysics Laboratory in 1947. The CSIR Mk 1 ran its first program in 1949, the fifth electronic computer in the world. It was over 1,000 times faster than the mechanical calculators available at the time. It was decommissioned in 1955 and recommissioned in Melbourne as CSIRAC in 1956 as a general purpose computing machine used by over 700 projects until 1964. The CSIRAC is the only surviving first-generation computer in the world.

Between 1965 and 1985, George Bornemissza of CSIRO's Division of Entomology founded and led the Australian Dung Beetle Project. Bornemissza, upon settling in Australia from Hungary in 1951, noticed that the pastureland was covered in dry cattle dung pads which did not seem to be recycled into the soil and caused areas of rank pasture which were unpalatable to the cattle. He proposed that the reason for this was that native Australian dung beetles, which had co-evolved alongside the marsupials (which produce dung very different in its composition from cattle), were not adapted to utilise cattle dung for their nutrition and breeding since cattle had only relatively recently been introduced to the continent in the 1880s. The Australian Dung Beetle Project sought, therefore, to introduce species of dung beetle from South Africa and Europe (which had co-evolved alongside bovids) in order to improve the fertility and quality of cattle pastures. Twenty-three species were successfully introduced throughout the duration of the project and also had the effect of reducing the pestilent bush fly population by 90%.

Domain name

CSIRO was the first Australian organisation to start using the Internet and was able to register the second-level domain csiro.au (as opposed to csiro.org.au or csiro.com.au). Guidelines were introduced in 1996 to regulate the use of the.au domain.

Data61

Energy

Manufacturing

Mineral Resources

Space and Astronomy

Environment (being the amalgamation of the former Land and Water and Oceans & Atmosphere BUs)

National facilities

CSIRO manages national research facilities and scientific infrastructure on behalf of the nation to assist with the delivery of research. The national facilities and specialised laboratories are available to both international and Australian users from industry and research. As at 2019, the following National Facilities are listed:

Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP)

Australia Telescope National Facility – radio telescopes included in the Facility include the Australia Telescope Compact Array, the Parkes Observatory, Mopra Telescope and the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder

Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex

Energy Centre and National Solar Energy Centre

Marine National Facility (R.V. "Investigator")

New Norcia ground station

NovaSAR-1 satellite

Pawsey Supercomputing Centre

Collections

CSIRO manages a number of collections of animal and plant specimens that contribute to national and international biological knowledge. The National Collections contribute to taxonomic, genetic, agricultural and ecological research. As at 2019, CSIRO's Collections are listed as the following:

Australian National Algae Culture Collection

The Atlas of Living Australia

Australian Tree Seed Centre

Australian National Fish Collection

Australian National Insect Collection

Australian National Herbarium

Australian National Soil Archive (managed through A&F)

Australian National Wildlife Collection

Cape Grim Air Archive

Services

In 2019, CSIRO Services are itemised as follows:

Materials and infrastructure services

Agricultural and environmental analysis

Environmental services

Biological, food and medical science services

Australian Animal Health Laboratory services

Other services are noted as including education, publishing, infrastructure technologies, Small and Medium Enterprise engagement and CSIRO Futures.

Controversy over the CSIRO patent arose in 2006 after the organisation won an injunction against Buffalo Technology in an infringement suit filed in Federal Court in the Eastern District of Texas. The injunction was subsequently suspended on appeal, with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit finding that the judge in Texas should have allowed a trial to proceed on Buffalo's challenge to the validity of the CSIRO patent. In 2007, CSIRO declined to provide an assurance to the IEEE that it would not sue companies which refused to take a license for use in 802.11n-compliant devices, while at the same time continuing to defend legal challenges to the validity of the patent brought by Intel, Dell, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Netgear.

In April 2009, Hewlett-Packard broke ranks with the rest of the industry becoming the first to reach a settlement of its dispute with CSIRO. This agreement was followed quickly by settlements with Microsoft, Fujitsu and Asus and then Dell, Intel, Nintendo, Toshiba, Netgear, Buffalo, D-Link, Belkin, SMC, Accton, and 3Com.

The controversy grew after CSIRO sued US carriers AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile in 2010, with the organisation being accused of being "Australia's biggest patent troll", a wrathful "patent bully", and of imposing a "WiFi tax" on American innovation.

Further fuel was added to the controversy after a settlement with the carriers, worth around $229 million, was announced in March 2012. Encouraged in part by an announcement by the Australian Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills Science and Research, Senator Chris Evans, an article in Ars Technica portrayed CSIRO as a shadowy organisation responsible for US consumers being compelled to make "a multimillion dollar donation" on the basis of a questionable patent claiming "decades old" technology. The resulting debate became so heated that the author was compelled to follow up with a defence of the original article. An alternative view was also published on The Register, challenging a number of the assertions made in the Ars Technica piece.

Total income to CSIRO from the patent is currently estimated at nearly $430 million. On 14 June 2012, the CSIRO inventors received the European Patent Office (EPO) European Inventor Award (EIA), in the category of "Non-European Countries".

Genetically modified wheat trials

On 14 July 2011, Greenpeace activists vandalised a crop of GM wheat, circumventing the scientific trials being undertaken. Greenpeace was forced to pay reparations to CSIRO of $280,000 for the criminal damage, and were accused by the sentencing judge, Justice Hilary Penfold, of cynically using junior members of the organisation with good standing to avoid custodial sentences, while the offenders were given 9-month suspended sentences.

Following the attack Greenpeace criticised CSIRO for a close relationship with industry that had led to an increase in genetically modified crops, even though a core aim of CSIRO is Cooperative Research "working hand in hand with industry [to] build partnerships and engage with industry to generate impact".

Climate change censorship: Clive Spash

On 25 November 2009, a debate was held in the Australian Senate concerning the alleged involvement of the CSIRO and the Labor government in censorship. The debate was called for by opposition parties after evidence came to light that a paper critical of carbon emissions trading was being suppressed. At the time, the Labor government was trying to get such a scheme through the Senate. After the debate, the Science Minister, Kim Carr, was forced to release the paper, but when doing so in the Senate he also delivered a letter from the CEO of the CSIRO, Megan Clark, which attacked the report's author and threatened him with unspecified punishment. The author of the paper, Clive Spash, was cited in the press as having been bullied and harassed, and later gave a radio interview about this. In the midst of the affair, CSIRO management had considered releasing the paper with edits that Nature reported would be "tiny". Spash claimed the changes actually demanded amounted to censorship and resigned. He later posted on his website a document detailing the text that CSIRO management demanded be deleted; by itself, this document forms a coherent set of statements criticising emissions trading without any additional wording needed. In subsequent Senate Estimates hearings during 2010, Senator Carr and Clark went on record claiming the paper was originally stopped from publication solely due to its low quality not meeting CSIRO standards. At the time of its attempted suppression, the paper had been accepted for publication in an academic journal, New Political Economy, which in 2010 had been ranked by the Australian Research Council as an 'A class' publication. In an ABC radio interview, Spash called for a Senate enquiry into the affair and the role played by senior management and the Science Minister. After these events, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that "Questions are being raised about the closeness of BHP Billiton and the CSIRO under its chief executive, Megan Clark". After his resignation, an unedited version of the paper was released by Spash as a discussion paper, and later published as an academic journal article.

CSIRO–Novartis–DataTrace scandal

On 11 April 2013, the Sydney Morning Herald ran a story on how CSIRO had "duped" the Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant Novartis into purchasing an anti-counterfeit technology for its vials of injectable Voltaren. The invention was marketed by a small Australian company called DataTrace DNA as a method of identifying fake vials, on the basis that a unique tracer code developed by CSIRO was embedded in the product. However, the code sold to Novartis for more than A$2M was apparently not unique, and was based on a "cheap tracer... bought in bulk from a Chinese distributor". Novartis was contractually bound not to reverse-engineer the tracer to verify its uniqueness. The Sydney Morning Herald report alleges that this was done with the knowledge of key CSIRO personnel.

CSIRO has since conducted a full review of the allegations and found no evidence to support them.

Alleged bullying, harassment and victimisation

Around 2008–2012, CSIRO fell under the spotlight for allegedly exhibiting a culture of workplace bullying and harassment. Former CSIRO employees started to surface with experiences of workplace bullying and other unreasonable behaviour by current and former CSIRO staff members. CSIRO took the allegations seriously and responded to the articles on a number of occasions.

The shadow minister for innovation, industry, science and research, Sophie Mirabella, wrote to the government requesting it establish an inquiry. Mirabella said she is aware of as many as 100 cases of alleged workplace harassment. On 20 July 2012 Comcare issued CSIRO with an Improvement Notice with regard to handling and management of workplace misconduct/code of conduct type investigations and allegations. On 24 June 2013 Mirabella advised the Australian House of Representatives that in relation to the worker's compensation claim for psychological injuries of ex-CSIRO employee, Martin Williams, which was vigorously defended by Comcare on the advice of the CSIRO, that CSIRO officers had provided false testimony on no less than 128 occasions under oath when the matter went before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Mirabella stated, "even in establishing the framework for this inquiry it is obvious there's an inappropriate 'hands on' approach by CSIRO."

In response to the allegations Clark commissioned Dennis Pearce, who is assisted by an investigation team from HWL Ebsworth Lawyers, to conduct an independent investigation into allegations of workplace bullying and other unreasonable behaviour. Mirabella continued to question the independence of the investigation. The first stage of the investigation published its findings at the end of July 2013, and the final stage was scheduled to be complete by February 2014. Post the Pearce Report, CSIRO overhauled its relevant policies and put in place training and whistleblower procedures to address the situation.

CSIRO and climate change

In 2013, the Abbott government cuts $25,000,000 from CSIRO's annual budget, and in 2014 CEO Megan Clarke makes "almost a quarter of CSIRO's scientists redundant"

In 2014, Minister Greg Hunt created NESP, diverting $21,000,000 per year of CSIRO climate funding to competitive Universities

In 2015, Dr Larry Marshall becomes CEO and shifts CSIRO's purpose to solving national challenges with science, launches "Innovation Catalyst Strategy"

In August 2015, the CSIRO discontinued its annual July and August survey, conducted over the previous five years, polling to create a long-term view of how Australians viewed global warming and their support for action. In the previous 2013 poll, 86 per cent agreed with the statement that climate change was occurring and only 7.6 per cent disagreed.

In 2016, Funding cuts of 2014 force 70 redundancies in climate science, Marshall says the argument about climate change is settled so its time to find a solution, compares emotion of debate to religion.

In "an open letter to the Australian Government and CSIRO", 2,800 of the leading climate scientists from 60 countries say the announcement of cuts to the CSIRO's Oceans and Atmosphere research program has alarmed the global climate research community. They say the decision shows a lack of insight and a misunderstanding of the importance of the depth and significance of Australian contributions to global and regional climate research.

Climate lobby, Greens & Labor launch intense political campaign against Marshall – terminating the “failed Marshall plan” and “reversing the cuts and "sacking Marshall" become a focus of Labor's 2016 election campaign.

Labor loses election, value of CSIRO doubles, Marshall becomes longest serving CEO in CSIRO's history.

In 2018, CSIRO creates 1st Net Zero plan for Australia, and demonstrates it by taking all 55 sites across Australia 80% of way to net zero, and doubling value of CSIRO at same time.

The CSIRO has been the target of successive funding cuts under the Morrison government, starting with cuts targeting climate science research initiated by Tony Abbott.

Trademark dispute with Cisco

In 2015, Cisco Systems filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against CSIRO, claiming that the colours and style of CSIRO's logo were too similar to Cisco's. An Australian court ruled in CSIRO's favor and ordered Cisco to pay CSIRO's court costs.