CSIRO’s chief scientist role faces uncertain future – The national science agency could axe its chief scientist role as part of a planned restructure that is expected to result in hundreds of jobs cuts. CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton on Monday revealed the agency is reviewing the coveted position, previously held by Professor Bronwyn Fox, to determine whether it still “makes sense”… InnovationAUS, 1 July 2024 (link, text below).
CSIRO dismantles clinical research units – A plan to address a funding cliff at the CSIRO will see management dismantle research teams at sites in South Australia and New South Wales and abandon plans to establish a new innovation centre at a university in Victoria… The Saturday Paper 22 June 2024 (link, text below).
CSIRO to cut at least 30 Ag and Food division jobs – CSIRO has confirmed that at least 30 research jobs are on the chopping block from the agency’s Agriculture and Food division, as the organisation seeks to cut costs across the board… Grain Central, 17 June 2024 (link, text below)
CSIRO staff are ‘nervous, stressed and anxious’ over possible job losses – The CSIRO is one of the biggest employers in the field of science and technology in the world, employing about 5,000 people across Australia. About 400 of those jobs are in Tasmania. In this year’s federal budget, CSIRO received $916.5 million in funding for 2024-25, which is $92 million less than the previous financial year… ABC radio Hobart, 6 June 2024 (link, audio only).
CSIRO set to slash hundreds of jobs – While Australia looks to challenges with climate change, AI and building up its national capabilities, the national science agency is again facing another round of job cuts, this time with concerns that more than 500 could be lost in the coming months… ABC Radio National Drive, 6 June 2024 (link, audio only).
Hundreds of CSIRO jobs under threat as union warns against ‘gutting’ of Australia’s science agency – Hundreds of jobs at CSIRO are under threat as part of the national science agency’s plans to make Australian research more “sustainable” in the future… Guardian Australia, 5 June 2024 (link, text below)
Govt workers told how to channel feelings in a ‘helpful way’ as job cuts loom – The national science agency offered webinars to staff staring down potential job cuts on how to channel their feelings “in a more helpful way”. CSIRO has told staff it is considering cuts to about 70 jobs following reviews of two separate areas, but its union fears a broader restructure will put more than 400 jobs on the line… Canberra Times, 1 May 2024 (link, text below)
‘A need to simplify’: CSIRO considering job cuts – The CSIRO is considering cutting jobs across two different areas, saying it is focused on “a strong, vibrant, and financially stable national science agency”. A spokesperson for the agency, which employed about 6300 people in the 2022-23 financial year, confirmed two separate reviews could lead to cuts, but “no decisions have been made”… Canberra Times, 25 April 2024 (link, text below)
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By Justin Hendry. InnovationAUS, 1 July 2024
The national science agency could axe its chief scientist role as part of a planned restructure that is expected to result in hundreds of jobs cuts.
CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton on Monday revealed the agency is reviewing the coveted position, previously held by Professor Bronwyn Fox, to determine whether it still “makes sense”.
Professor Fox, who spent almost three years at the agency, will join the University of New South Wales as its new deputy vice-chancellor for research and enterprise later this month.
Her departure comes just months after the CSIRO began consulting on a restructure that will reduce labor and operating costs in its enterprise support services function by 25 per cent over the coming year.
The planned restructure will also involve “immediate changes” to executive functions, including the chief scientist position, a decision that stems from the planned creation of a deputy chief executive role.
“The chief scientist’s position will be refocused from internal line management to one of science engagement and advocacy,” Dr Hilton said in an email disclosed by the CSIRO Staff Association.
Responding to questions about the changes described in media reports as a demotion, Dr Hilton said the agency is “considering really carefully” the future of the role.
“We have… many senior and expert scientists in the organisation, and so what we’re doing is considering whether having a single chief scientist make sense,” he told a spillover Senate Estimates hearing.
Dr Hilton said that one option on the table is having “several people in power to talk on behalf of the organisation on research matters on which they are subject domain experts”.
“We’re really open-minded about it, and the fact that we’re thinking of it is in no way to be interpreted of as a diminution in the importance of research for [the] CSIRO,” he told the Economics committee.
Dr Hilton said consultation on the restructure is ongoing, with no further job cuts identified beyond the 43 research roles in the health and biosecurity business unit revealed at Senate Estimates last month.
He also said there are “no plan as yet” for cuts at CSIRO’s specialist Data61 unit, despite reports that it has already been subject to consultation processes about its budget.
A workforce plan for Data61 is expected in “weeks and months”. The unit is currently “considering their budget and the capability they need”, according to Dr Hilton.
“We think its important to have our non-research side as efficient and effective in supporting the science as possible,” he said responding to broader questions about the restructure.
Dr Hilton said that non-research costs at the agency had grown from 22 per cent to 28 per cent, as a proportion of labour costs, in recent years.
According to the CSIRO’s latest annual report, there were 1,990 staff in Enterprise Support Services (ESS), suggesting that as many as 500 jobs could be on the chopping block.
Asked whether the agency had appealed to the government for new funding ahead of the 2024 federal Budget, Dr Hilton said “no additional requests for funding were made”.
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By Rick Morton. The Saturday Paper, 22 June 2024
Job cuts at the CSIRO will see the agency close two clinical research units and shelve a plan to establish a food research centre in Victoria.
A plan to address a funding cliff at the CSIRO will see management dismantle research teams at sites in South Australia and New South Wales and abandon plans to establish a new innovation centre at a university in Victoria.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, under the new leadership of molecular biologist Professor Doug Hilton, is on a mission to cut labour and operational costs by at least 25 per cent over the next year or risk running out of money.
Current and former employees with knowledge of the plans say researchers and scientists have become collateral damage, however, following years of middle management “bloat”.
At least 400 jobs are expected to be cut across the organisation, although some estimates are as high as 1000 jobs. Professor Hilton has already confirmed 73 of these will be research roles in the health and biosecurity unit and the agriculture and food division.
“We look to refine the capability that we have in those units,” Hilton told Senate estimates on June 5.
“As you would understand, science priorities change and national priorities change, and not all scientists have exactly the same skills, and it’s important to be able to refine the capabilities that we can deploy to the most important problems that the nation faces. There will always be a case for doing that in an ongoing manner.”
The Saturday Paper can confirm the scientific roles are not being replaced and there will only be minimal redeployment under current plans, leading to a net reduction in research output across the agency.
Management is proposing to cut 14 staff from its clinical research trial incubator program across its “purpose-built clinical research facility” at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and at the new medical research clinic at the Westmead health and innovation precinct in Sydney.
The agency’s human health program research director, Erica Bremner Kneipp, wrote to the CSIRO Staff Association in April to advise it that despite “strategic appropriation and revenue relief to support efforts to actively shift and strengthen the portfolio by moving away from small service projects to larger more strategic and enduring opportunities, increasing external revenue”, they were unable to create an “undeniable value proposition”.
“This support has enabled some incremental shifts, but the investment on its own has been insufficient to consolidate capability relative to market need and national priorities and build a sustainable and impactful pipeline,” Bremner Kneipp wrote.
“Notwithstanding efforts to pivot, CSIRO considers that the program structure must evolve to enable this shift in strategic focus, noting the structure cannot be sustained in its current form given the current lack of sufficient opportunities.”
Bremner Kneipp noted changes would lead to a reduction in “nutrition capabilities” among researchers. She added the changes would involve: “Exit from agriculture and food related pre-clinical analytical studies. Exit from clinical trial services including the closure of two units at Westmead and SAHMRI, Adelaide. Exit from biomarker and molecular diagnostics and shift to support non-animal models and biosurveillance [and a] reduction in project management requirements to align with the size of the program.”
The CSIRO had planned to move its Food Innovation Centre from Werribee to La Trobe University, where it would create the Australian Food Innovation Centre. It won a competitive tender process by the university to be its partner, but has now shelved those plans after the idea attracted millions of dollars in investment, including from the Victorian state government.
In March, the CSIRO made an $860,000 “co-contribution” to La Trobe University for the schematic design of the new Australian Food Innovation Centre, which it now does not intend to fully use.
“I think what is especially galling about this is that they’re not just trimming management positions that have sprung up in the last year, they’re going after things like this that have been in the pipeline for a very long time.”
La Trobe told a Senate inquiry the innovation centre was critical to securing the future of Australia’s food industry: “Currently in the agri-food sector, there exists no single solution to address the long-term challenges such as climate change and weather volatility, food security, supply chain resilience and associated health and nutrition outcomes.”
The national science agency said it remained “committed” to the innovation centre but confirmed it would not relocate to La Trobe University.
“CSIRO remains committed to AFIC and its work with La Trobe University (LTU), other tertiary institutions and the broader food industry,” the agency said in a statement.
“This will be done through a distributed model rather than CSIRO relocating to the LTU Bundoora campus.”
One researcher with knowledge of the changed arrangements tells The Saturday Paper the CSIRO budget cuts are significant, organisation-wide and are affecting projects that have been years in the making.
“I think what is especially galling about this is that they’re not just trimming management positions that have sprung up in the last year, they’re going after things like this that have been in the pipeline for a very long time and taken considerable amounts of work to get going,” the researcher says.
“That indicates a much bigger problem.”
During the pandemic the then Morrison government provided the CSIRO with hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding as a lifeline designed to cushion against the loss of external revenue. That money has now been wound back and Labor has cut the agency’s funding by almost $100 million.
According to senior employees, both past and current, there was a view within the CSIRO that despite the acknowledgement of a “funding cliff” there was no need to constrain costs because the government would pick up the tab. That has not happened.
Another source says the executive team was warned about financial issues at the agency but “sat on their hands” and now the required cuts were wider, deeper and being implemented by a new chief executive who was simultaneously trying to reshape the CSIRO.
While most of the job losses will be from so-called shared services – corporate functions that support the rest of the organisation – this is largely being done through increased centralisation and removing support roles from different units, including scientific and research units.
Will that make their work harder? “I hope not, but my fear is that it will,” a source says.
The CSIRO section secretary at the Community and Public Sector Union, Susan Tonks, told The Saturday Paper the cuts would impact the country’s preparations for major challenges.
“If we want to be a country that can respond to the big national challenges we are facing such as AI, the environment and biosecurity, we need the CSIRO to be adequately resourced, not gutted,” she said.
“But it is hard to know what sort of consequences we are looking at, when the plan for our national science agency is being hidden by the CSIRO executive.
“Staff were advised of extensive cuts on multiple occasions earlier this year, but as soon as the union shone a light on what was happening and the poor way it was being done, Dr Hilton and his plans went to ground.”
One example is the digital specialists at Data61, a unit of CSIRO that has for months been subject to what the union calls “confusing” consultation processes about its budget and need to achieve sustainability.
In March, some staff were told to expect losses in the order of 130 roles, a figure that has since decreased to 112. However, when ACT independent Senator David Pocock asked about the potential for cuts at Data61 during Senate estimates on June 5, he was told otherwise.
“There are no plans yet for Data61,” Hilton said.
At a scheduled workshop session less than a fortnight later staff were told about the need for “problem-solving” and discussed funding shortfalls, but managers were less forthcoming about potential job cuts.
“Staff have now been left in limbo, particularly in areas such as Data61, where they were told restructures, redundancies and job losses were coming their way,” Tonks said.
“However, they then heard Dr Hilton tell Senator David Pocock that wasn’t the case in a Senate estimates hearing. Dr Hilton has a list of planned job cuts he is sitting on, and it is causing widespread anxiety amongst the organisation he is meant to be leading.
“The least he could do is communicate and be honest with staff and the country about what he is doing and why he is doing it.”
In response to questions from The Saturday Paper requesting clarity on the subject, a spokesperson for the CSIRO said it “does not currently have a workplace change plan for Data61”.
“Data61, like all of CSIRO’s research units, is undertaking strategic budget planning to ensure we have the right scale and scientific capability in place to deliver against national priorities,” the spokesperson said.
“CSIRO has begun engaging staff through a series of sessions around future budget planning and is exploring options to mitigate potential impact on staff, such as by increasing external revenue and reducing operating expenditure.”
The agency is currently in the process of redeploying some staff where it can find new roles for them but anticipates redundancies will begin in August and run through until the end of September.
Senator Pocock told The Saturday Paper the “CSIRO does invaluable work and its researchers are one of the most powerful resources we have to understand and deal with some of the biggest challenges we face”.
“Reports of staff cuts or reductions in budget are always concerning and is something I’m continuing to dig into further,” he said. “We need more rather than less investment in research from both government and the private sector.”
In his March email to staff advising of proposed changes, Hilton led with the restructure of the executive, which would introduce new roles, disband others and shift responsibilities across the team.
“While there have been cost increases across all CSIRO, a disproportionate part of this growth has been in Enterprise Services,” he said.
“Although efforts have been made to reduce costs, we have not been successful to date and it is clear that the current and projected costs for Enterprise Services cannot be sustained.
“We need to address this through prudent action and ongoing operating discipline for both Enterprise Support and our science areas.”
As part of the shift, the chief scientist position at the agency would be “refocussed from internal line management to one of science engagement and advocacy”.
The note said management functions, critical in a science organisation, would now be devolved to a deputy chief executive and the chief scientist would report to them on matters of science impact and policy. This is effectively a demotion for the chief scientist.
A spokesperson for the CSIRO said no final decisions had been made about the rest of the proposed changes at the agency.
“Australia needs a strong, vibrant, and financially sustainable national science agency that maximises its research investment to increase impact for the nation,” they said.
“CSIRO’s focus is firmly on ensuring staff are informed, consulted, and supported throughout these changes, and has robust processes in place to support this. The wellbeing of our staff is our priority, and we are providing a range of services to our staff to support them through this period.”
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By Emma Alsop. Grain Central, 17 June 2024
CSIRO has confirmed that at least 30 research jobs are on the chopping block from the agency’s Agriculture and Food division, as the organisation seeks to cut costs across the board.
These job cuts come alongside five more staff losses in the Manufacturing unit, 43 in the Health and Biosecurity team and an unspecified number from Enterprise Support Services, which features finance, human resource, business development, and commercialisation positions.
The CSIRO Staff Association has estimated that about 500 jobs across the agency could be cut out of a total workforce of 5000.
During Senate Estimates earlier this month, CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton said the cuts were part of the agency assessing the capability across its units.
“Science changes and the capability that we have across all of our business units has to change with changing times,” Dr Hilton said.
Dr Hilton said consultations were ongoing, and no decision had been made about the number of job losses to the ESS team.
He also confirmed cuts to Agriculture and Food and Manufacturing would hit research staff.
“Science priorities change, national priorities change, and not all scientists have exactly the same skills.
“It is important to be able to refine the capabilities that we can deploy to the most important problems that the nation faces and there will always be a case for doing that in an ongoing manner.
“We want to make sure that we have the programs that we believe are going to be most impactful and that requires us to, overtime, change the mix of scientists we have.”
Independent Senator David Pocock said the CSIRO job cuts were “clearly a funding issue at a time where we are at a record low research and development as a percentage of GDP”.
“Climate change is going to totally reshape our food system and yet we are hearing that we are losing researchers,” Mr Pocock said.
Assistant Minister for Trade and Assistant Minister for Manufacturing Senator Tim Ayres told Senate Estimates that the government was aware of the situation and had met with the CSIRO Staff Association.
He also highlighted that the CSIRO was “independent of government”.
“The statement of expectations that the Minister has issued to the CSIRO makes it very clear that all of the steps that you would expect to be undertaken to ensure staff are appropriately informed and consulted should be undertaken by the CSIRO,” Mr Ayres said.
Agency restructure
The job losses stem from a restructuring under way at CSIRO designed to streamline operations and cut costs of ESS by 25 percent by 2025-26.
Initially, staff were told the changes would by “limited”, but in April, Dr Hilton revealed jobs would be lost from ESS as well as researcher and scientist roles from other units.
This was followed by the news that several programs and services under the Health and Biosecurity division would be reduced or cut.
These include stopping clinical trial services at Westmead in Sydney, and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, and decreasing or exiting research into nutrition capabilities, agriculture and food related pre-clinical analytical studies, and biomarker and molecular diagnostics.
In a letter to staff dated April 30, Agriculture and Food director Michael Robinson said the team had been “refining its priorities for future impact, while at the same time managing the workforce required against our budget”.
He said the positions would be impacted as the organisation looks to put more resources into areas “that focus on transformational science that effect step change within the agriculture and food sectors, as described in the Food Security and Quality Challenge”.
It is unclear which programs and staff will be impacted by the restructure.
The Food and Security Quality Challenge includes the goal of growing the “triple bottom line value of Australia’s agrifood and fibre industries” via developing high-value foods and feeds, sustainable and trusted value chains, and improved crops and animals.
Programs under the framework include the Drought Resilience Mission, the Future Protein Mission, Trusted Agrifood Mission and the Immune Resilience FSP.
CSIRO budget cuts
The foreshadowed job and program losses come as May’s Federal Government Budget allocated less funding for CSIRO than the previous financial year.
CSIRO is set to receive $1.653 billion in 2024-25 from government and external sources, down from the 2023-24 actual outcome of $1.679B.
In total, $916.46 million will come from government funds, compared to $686.67M from external sources, most of which will be the sale of goods and services.
This is a drop of over $90M on 2023-24 government allocations.
Employee expenses are also set to decline from 2023-24 and continue to reduce every financial year to 2027-28.
Despite the cut in expenses, CSIRO’s overall financial position is projected to have a bleak future.
In 2024-25, CSIRO is expected to report a profit of $213.4M, due primarily to the sale of assets equalling $262.3M, followed by losses for the three subsequent financial years of $62.6M, $54.3M and $39.4M.
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By Sarah Basford Canales. Guardian Australia, 5 June 2024
Hundreds of jobs at CSIRO are under threat as part of the national science agency’s plans to make Australian research more “sustainable” in the future.
The public sector union expects more than 500 jobs across corporate services and some research units to be cut in the coming months, while warning the “gutting” of CSIRO could mean hundreds more might be on the horizon.
A majority of the redundancies are expected to target some of the 1,600 support roles within the agency’s ESS unit, covering finance, business development, commercialisation, health and safety, and human resources.
But cuts to the health and biosecurity team will also leave the future of a newly built million-dollar research facility in Sydney’s Westmead in the balance as CSIRO reviews its national “property footprint”.
A spokesperson for CSIRO said the agency had identified the unit’s budget needed to be reduced by 25% from the next financial year, in order to “reduce costs, complexity and duplication” in delivering research.
The Community and Public Sector Union believes the 25% reduction in costs could result in more than 400 jobs alone being cut from the section.
CSIRO’s spokesperson said the final number of roles to be cut is still under consideration.
“While we are expecting reductions in headcount, this is not yet quantified due to the interplay between operating and labour costs,” the spokesperson said.
“These changes to Enterprise Services are being proposed to ensure CSIRO can direct our resources to increase research impact for the community for the years and decades ahead.”
Roles will also be slashed across other research units, including agriculture and food, and the agency’s data and digital specialist arm, Data61.
The May federal budget papers show the national science agency will receive $916.5m for 2024-25, a $92m decrease in funding from the previous year’s $1bn.
CSIRO will also need to raise an additional $66m in revenue across the financial year, which it primarily does through joint research projects.
A spokesperson said the drop in resources was “expected, reflecting whole of government savings measures and the conclusion of ‘safety net’ funding” provided during Covid-19 pandemic.
The future of the agency’s Westmead facility, which houses health and biosecurity staff, is also in question as a result of the cuts. The federal government’s AusTender site says the workplace’s setup cost taxpayers $4.3m, with the contract ending in May 2023.
The unit’s director, the former Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton, described the Human Health program’s restructure in an April email to his staff as a “difficult decision”.
The CPSU’s CSIRO section secretary, Susan Tonks, said the agency’s 6,000 or so staff were “in shock” about the overhaul, which could “have very real consequences for the future of science in our country.”
“If we want to be a country that can respond to the big national challenges we are facing such as AI, the environment and biosecurity, we need the CSIRO to be adequately resourced, not gutted,” Tonks said.
“Management needs to be honest with staff and the country about their plans for our national science agency.”
A union-run survey of 658 staff last month found 67% of those who responded felt staff morale was worse since the downsizing was announced. Less than a third felt it was the about the same.
About 65% felt the job cuts would impact CSIRO’s ability to put out good research and support Australian industries.
“Less support staff means more work for an already stretched research workforce,” one anonymised respondent wrote.
Staff affected by the cuts to their teams told Guardian Australia under the condition of anonymity they felt blindsided by management’s decisions to downsize.
CSIRO’s spokesperson said the “wellbeing of our staff is our priority”.
“CSIRO’s focus is firmly on ensuring staff are informed, consulted and supported throughout these changes, and has robust processes in place to support this,” they said.
A spokesperson for the science minister, Ed Husic, said any workforce decisions are for CSIRO to make as an independent agency.
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By Miriam Webber. Canberra Times, 1 May 2024
The national science agency offered webinars to staff staring down potential job cuts on how to channel their feelings “in a more helpful way”.
CSIRO has told staff it is considering cuts to about 70 jobs following reviews of two separate areas, but its union fears a broader restructure will put more than 400 jobs on the line.
The agency says it has not made any decisions, but is consulting employees on potential cuts to 40 jobs from the health and biosecurity area, and a further 30 from the agriculture and business unit.
Some affected positions will be from projects which have concluded, and reductions could be made through redundancies, redeployment and cessation of contracts.
But it is anticipated a review of the enterprise services area could have a much more significant impact. This would affect people working in IT, HR, communications, business development, facilities management and finance roles.
CSIRO has not said how many positions could be slashed from enterprise services, but has acknowledged it will need to bring labour and operating costs down 25 per cent by July 2025.
The Canberra Times also understands the agency offered several webinar sessions for affected staff throughout April, run by its employee assistance program provider.
The sessions, which coincided with the ongoing restructure, were focused on dealing with uncertainty, and were promoted to staff as offering various supports and strategies.
Material provided to staff on the session said they would cover “how to channel thoughts, feelings and behaviours in a more helpful way”
There were also tips to “get our energy back”, and directions on where to receive support.
Asked about the webinars, a spokesperson for the agency said, “CSIRO’s focus is firmly on ensuring staff are informed, consulted, and supported through these change processes”.
The CSIRO Staff Association – a section of the Community and Public Sector Union – wrote to Science Minister Ed Husic on April 24, 2024, requesting a meeting and expressing deep concerns about the changes.
“A 25% cut could greatly damage the CSIRO and their ability to continue with critical science and research programs,” the union’s section secretary Susan Tonks wrote in the letter, seen by The Canberra Times.
“Our members are deeply concerned by the lack of transparency and certainty for CSIRO staff in the Enterprise Support Services [ESS] team.”
The Canberra Times has contacted Minister Husic’s office for comment.
The CSIRO spokesperson said it is acting in accordance with its enterprise agreement and “good practice”.
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By Miriam Webber. Canberra Times, 25 April 2024
The CSIRO is considering cutting jobs across two different areas, saying it is focused on “a strong, vibrant, and financially stable national science agency”.
A spokesperson for the agency, which employed about 6300 people in the 2022-23 financial year, confirmed two separate reviews could lead to cuts, but “no decisions have been made”.
Responding to questions about potential changes, they said, “Australia needs a strong, vibrant, and financially stable national science agency that maximises research investment to deliver the best possible impact to the nation.”
The first review dealt with jobs in corporate functions such as IT, HR, communications, business development, facilities management and finance.
The spokesperson said this review has “shown a need to simplify – to reduce complexity and address duplication and the cost to support the delivery of research”.
The labour and operating costs of these areas – known as enterprise services – will need to be reduced by 25 per cent by the end of the 2025-26 financial year.
While “some reductions are expected”, the number of jobs affected is not yet known.
Second review could lead to cuts elsewhere
Elsewhere, about 40 positions could be cut, through the cessation of term contracts, redeployment, or redundancies.
This affects the Human Health program in CSIRO’s Health & Biosecurity area.
Proposed changes would “enable a stronger focus on disease prevention, preparedness, and response,” the spokesperson said.
“Consultation in relation to these proposed changes is underway and expected to close in May.”
“No decisions have been made and CSIRO has robust processes to ensure staff are informed, consulted, and supported through these change processes.”
It is understood the decisions have been made by the agency.
The office of Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic declined to comment.
