Australia's national science organisation planned to stop "doing science for science sake" and would no longer do "public good" work unless it was linked to jobs and economic growth, according to internal emails between CSIRO senior managers.

The emails contradict claims that the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has remained committed to research that does not bring in revenue, and illustrate the scale of the restructure planned under new chief executive Larry Marshall.

Under Dr Marshall, CSIRO has shifted its focus to making money to pay for its work. The vision sees the iconic Australian science organisation as an "innovation catalyst".

The emails confirm the century-old organisation was particularly focused on – in the words used in an exchange between managers in CSIRO's oceans and atmosphere division – "eliminating all capability" of its climate change research programs.

An email from Andreas Schiller, science and deputy director of oceans and atmosphere, on January 18 suggested CSIRO aim to make a "clean cut" to get rid of "public good/government-funded climate research".

Sent two weeks before the cuts were announced, it suggested axing 120 climate science staff.

"If we aim for less we will inevitably face the problem of keeping some of the climate scientists (who will no longer be aligned with the new CSIRO strategy)," Dr Schiller wrote.

A full draft plan for the oceans and atmosphere division from February, when the cuts without announced with few details, shows the proposed changes included:

*Abolishing research on global greenhouse gas emissions.
*Abolishing research on sea level rise.
*Abolishing research in Antarctica.
*Abolishing multi-year, multi-decadal climate modelling and analysis.
*Reducing collection and analysis of ocean carbon levels, due to "insufficient demand".
*Reducing research into the management of the impact on biodiversity, due to reduced demand.
*Reducing research in Australia's tropical north, and northern Australian fisheries.
*Continuing research on "fugitive emissions" – greenhouse gases unintentionally released during industrial activity.


Where the draft plan refers to insufficient or reduced demand, it is understood it means that research area does not bring in enough money from government or private sources. CSIRO's public-good research spans many of its disciplines, including agriculture, energy and astronomy.

Email dump

The emails are among nearly 700 pages of internal CSIRO documents released in response to a request by a Greens-Labor convened Senate inquiry into the plan to cut as many as 350 CSIRO jobs. More emails between senior CSIRO managers are yet to be released.
Dr Marshall, a physicist and former Silicon Valley venture capitalist, has said sacked staff were expected to be replaced over the next two years by a similar number in different areas. They would include 35 new climate jobs looking at how to tackle the problem, rather than measure what is happening.

The cuts to monitoring, measuring and analysing climate data have been condemned by scientists in Australia and internationally, including criticism by the head of the World Meteorological Organisation's climate research program and an editorial in the New York Times.

Managers at science agencies that partner with and rely on CSIRO – including the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Antarctic Division and the University of Tasmania's Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies – were surprised by the cuts and unclear what it would mean for joint research projects.

Within CSIRO, the reaction has at times been hostile. Scientists from the land and water division in Canberra walked out of a meeting session with Dr Marshall two weeks ago over cuts to their numbers, and the staff union is challenging the cuts in the Fair Work Commission.
It is understood the external pressure is likely to have helped save dozens of jobs, with one climate-related unit now expected to lose about 35 staff, down from an initial plan to cut 65 jobs.

Quote:


...about time they started making money instead of spending it 

Its time wrote on Apr 5^th, 2016 at 1:54pm:


It's "Sky Fairies" that they've been spending all the tax-payer's money on......

Swagman wrote on Apr 5^th, 2016 at 1:51pm:

Swagman wrote on Apr 6^th, 2016 at 3:53pm:

You don't know shite about what science does for an economy!

...or maybe you do and just pretend you don't 

Swagman wrote on Apr 6^th, 2016 at 5:23pm: