SEPTEMBER 2003
Reshaping CSIRO’s Future

Geoff Garrett responds to criticisms made in Australasian Science by setting out the reasons for change in CSIRO, and how those changes will be made.

In recent times, particularly over the past 18 months, concerns have been raised about the future directions of CSIRO. Issues like funding, staff changes, commercialisation of research outcomes and the realignment of research capability to address changing research priorities have been the catalysts for some robust debate both within and outside the organisation.

Such debate is healthy and testament to the esteem in which CSIRO is held, not only by people within the organisation but by government and the Australian community. It is a reputation well-deserved. CSIRO has a distinguished 77-year record of delivering research outcomes to Australia and indeed the world, and currently ranks in the top 1% of scientific institutions in the world in 11 out of 22 scientific disciplines.

Healthy Feedback

But there has also been some longstanding criticism of the way CSIRO operates. Despite our reputation for doing great science, feedback from many external and internal stakeholders told us that the organisation:

• was spreading its efforts too thinly – to have real impact we needed to focus more on major challenges and opportunities;
• was not adequately harnessing its full breadth and diversity; and
• needed to work better with other players.

Coupled with this, our record of effective commercialisation (i.e. delivering the results of our research to the end user – a major reason for our existence) was somewhat “patchy”. There was also a perception within the organisation that we were in “shrinkage mode”, with both our government appropriation funding and external earnings growth flat.

In response to this feedback, and other forces – local and international – currently acting on large public research organisations, it was obvious that we needed to change. “Business as usual” was not an option.

As a management team, 2 years ago we developed a new approach. Our strategy for CSIRO for the next decade is based around six key messages:

• a strong outward-looking emphasis;
• a “service from science” culture;
• greater focus on major scientific challenges and opportunities for Australia;
• stronger partnerships with universities, other science agencies and industry;
• a unified “one-CSIRO” making full use of our collective strengths; and above all
• growing our impact and relevance in service to the nation.

Australia’s Challenges, and Our Response

Australia faces some major challenges and opportunities. Over the next 25 years, our population will grow by 25% and the proportion of people older than 65 will double. Such growth has a number of important implications for our country, including increased demand for resources such as energy, water, food, minerals and health care. Internationally we are faced with the pressures of globalisation, changing and increasingly unstable geopolitical relationships and security threats.

To help Australia meet these challenges and to deliver against our strategy, our future research will be focused and delivered through three major areas:

• the Flagship Programs;
• our Emerging Sciences initiative; and
• our Priority-Driven Core Research.

The Flagships, and Big Goals

The Flagships initiative, closely aligned with the National Research Priorities, marks a new era for CSIRO and our research partners in science and industry. Flagships provide focus and critical mass, and will make substantial new impacts on major national challenges and opportunities.

There are currently six Flagships centred on pressing national objectives:

• Preventative Health – to help reduce health care costs, increase total economic benefit to the nation and enable Australians to achieve an extra 10 years of productive and enjoyable life;
• Agrifood Top 5 – to transform the international competitiveness and add $3 billion of value to the Australian agrifood sector by applying frontier technologies to its largest industries;
• Energy Transformed – to double the efficiency of the nation’s new energy production, to halve energy losses and make Australia a world leader in cutting greenhouse emissions;
• Healthy Country – to achieve a 10-fold increase in the social, economic and environmental benefits from water use by 2025;
• Light Metals – to help generate significant new export income, industries and enterprises for Australia by the 2020s by leading the global revolution in light metals; and
• Wealth from Oceans – to build on Australia’s excellence in climate and ocean science to generate sustainable wealth from our marine resources.

Big goals indeed but, as Daniel Burnham has said: “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood, and probably themselves will not be realised. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram – once recorded – will not die.”

The Federal government has shown support for the National Flagships by allocating an extra $20 million in the recent Budget to help make the Program a reality. Flagships are a long-term initiative and by 2007 approximately 30–40% of our total research expenditure will be invested in them.

Emerging Science and Priority-driven Core Research

In addition to the Flagships initiatives, CSIRO will continue to deliver world-class science outcomes across our core capability in research areas as diverse as agribusiness, community health,

environmental and natural resources, manufacturing, information and communication technologies, radioastronomy and sustainable mineral and energy production. Our priority-driven core research is the single largest program by which we will address our strategic goals, accounting for approximately 50% of research expenditure.

The remainder (approximately 10%) of CSIRO’s budget will fund our new Emerging Sciences Initiative, focusing the research base of our organisation on those leading-edge technologies that are likely to be most vital to Australia’s future prosperity. There are five themes, which aim to deliver some of the most exciting science breakthroughs for the future:

• Complex Systems Science;
• Socio-Economic Integration;
• Novel Biotechnologies;
• Nanotechnology; and
• Innovative Information and Communications Technology.

Delivery is Key

One of the major reasons for CSIRO’s existence is to deliver research outcomes to our stakeholders. We accept that we have to do better in this domain if we are to increase our impact, and thus we have brought in new skills to help us. For too long we have relied on our great scientists taking on extra business development and commercialisation roles. The bottom line is that we need teams with complementary skills to fully leverage our world-class research and maximise its benefit for the organisation and for the nation.

We are now well-positioned to deliver on these commitments. Over the past 12 months our staff numbers have grown by more than 250 – unprecedented over the past decade – and our Federal government funding has increased by 6.8%. Our Board has formally signed off our strategy for the next 4 years, with strong support.

The Future

The coming year, in many ways, will be an exciting and indeed a watershed year for Australian science, with a number of major reviews being undertaken by the Department of Education, Science and Training, including the National Innovation System Mapping process, the Collaboration review, the Cooperative Research Centres review and a review of Research Infrastructure. CSIRO is actively participating in all of these reviews, the outcomes of which will undoubtedly feed into the next phase of the Federal government’s research and innovation program.

But for us, the most important changes have already begun. For the next decade, CSIRO will help take on the biggest and most challenging issues facing the nation. We will help advance the pace of commercialisation. Through vibrant partnerships with effective knowledge transfer to industry and communities, we will help drive business activity, exports and social benefits. And through unremitting excellence in both science and in the business of doing science, we will remain one of the world’s pre-eminent scientific organisations.

Above all, through science and imagination, our people will help create the sort of future for Australia that Australians want:

• a source of innovative, sustainable solutions, ideas and technologies to the world;
• booming knowledge exports worth billions of dollars; and
• industrial and environmental innovation and rejuvenation – new jobs, new industries and fresh opportunities.
  

Geoff Garrett is Chief Executive of CSIRO.