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CSIRO is an Australian Government statutory authority within the Industry and Science Portfolio, operating under the provisions of the Science and Industry Research Act 1949. Our primary purpose is defined through the functions we undertake for the benefit of Australia, as set down in the Act.
The Chief Executive of CSIRO is also the Trustee of the Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF) which is a separately constituted trust for statutory purposes under the Science and Industry Endowment Act 1926 (SIEF Act).
Australia’s innovation catalyst, boosting Australia’s innovation performance.
Create value for customers through innovation that delivers positive impact for Australia.
We, the CSIRO Board, as the accountable authority of CSIRO present the CSIRO Corporate Plan 2015–16, as required under paragraph 35(1) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. The plan is prepared in accordance with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014.
The CSIRO Corporate Plan 2015–16 is prepared for the financial year 2015–16 and covers the reporting periods 2015–16 to 2018–19. It sets out the strategies CSIRO proposes to pursue to fulfil its purpose; the activities CSIRO proposes to carry out; and the resources CSIRO proposes to allocate to these activities.
We will focus our efforts on technologies for global growth that can deliver national benefit.
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I am delighted to share with you this Corporate Plan – my first as CSIRO Chief Executive but, more importantly, the first plan under our new CSIRO Strategy 2020. This is an exciting time for us to shape our future and the national treasure that is our CSIRO.
As you know, success is more about execution than strategy. The actions outlined in this plan will directly enhance national productivity of the advanced manufacturing and digital economies, enhance Australia’s competitiveness in the food and agricultural industries and address the key national challenges of health, environment, education, and energy.
Our first priority is to put our customers first. Building strong collaborative industry-research alliances has been a proven formula for success. Our individual customers are diverse, from the public, government, industry, our land, oceans, and atmosphere – but collectively our customer is Australia. We will increase national productivity, enhance Australia’s competitiveness, and raise our global standing in innovation.
We will focus our efforts on technologies for global growth that can deliver national benefit. We will expand our global reach to connect and integrate Australian and international science, technology and innovation, with a physical presence and operations in key overseas markets.
We recognise that true innovation happens at the intersection of different disciplines and partners. We have created market focused business units as the engine of our organisation, delivering excellent science and building capability and platforms that create the industries of the future.
We will switch on a new innovation catalyst program called 'ON'. This program will enhance our capacity to generate innovations with commercial potential and social benefits and accelerate their delivery to customers in industry, government and community.
Throughout the year we will continue to refine our operations and focus our efforts on improving our agility, responding at the speed of business.
Success will depend on how well we support and develop our people. But innovation is less about success, but more about learning from failure and trying again, and again. We are committed to building an innovation culture based on leadership, empowerment, collaboration and inclusion. We will continue to improve our people’s safety and wellbeing. We respect risk, but we do not fear it. We do not take physical risk, but we will take more business and market risk. Sometimes we will fail; if we don’t fail we aren’t pushing hard enough.
Here at CSIRO it’s our duty to make a stronger, better, brighter future for our country. Our gift as scientists is our ability to invent that better future and give our country the technological advantages it needs to prosper in a hyper-competitive world. We will continue to provide world leading research at the intersection of innovation and science that will see long term sustaining value for our customers, the Australian people and industry alike.
Dr Larry Marshall
Chief Executive
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The RV Investigator was formally commissioned at the Welcome to Port celebrations in December 2014. The Investigator is a 93.9 metre, $120 million purpose built research vessel, capable of travelling 10,800 nautical miles in a single voyage, carrying up to 40 scientists and support staff, from the equator to the Antarctic ice-edge. It will support atmospheric, oceanographic, biological and geoscience research.
CSIRO is partnering with the BHP Billiton Foundation on a $28.8 million, five year project to deliver education programs, excellence awards, mentoring, summer schools and tailored university degrees aimed at closing the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement and employment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
CSIRO, together with the St Vincent’s Hospital and Anatomics (a Victorian biotech company), have implanted a titanium-printed heel bone in a world-first surgery on a 71 yr old man from Victoria, who was diagnosed with cancer of the heel bone and was facing amputation of the leg below the knee. The patient has since recovered well.
CSIRO has led work on an integrated re-appraisal of the latest hydrogeology and hydrochemistry of the entire Great Artesian Basin. The extraction of coal seam gas can potentially impact groundwater, depending on the location and method used for extraction. Groundwater modelling is undertaken to predict the extent to which coal seams are connected to aquifers, and whether drawing water from one will impact levels in the other, and over what timescale. Seismic mapping technologies are also used to map fracture locations and channels for water
movement underground.
CSIRO has created a building energy management system for heating, ventilation and air conditioning – OptiCOOL. The technology has been widely adopted, controlling approx 15 million square feet of floor space in Australia and the US. The impacts include reduced energy consumption in commercial buildings up to 30%, greater electricity grid stability, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and employment opportunities through licensee BuildingIQ. Benefits that can be attributed to CSIRO estimated at $79.7 million between 2014–15 to 2024–25.
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[FIGURE]
CSIRO Board
Chief Executive
Deputy Chief Executive
Chief Finance Officer
National Facilities and Collections
Executive Director
Impact Science
Agriculture, Food and Nutrition
Energy and Minerals
Environment
Manufacturing, Digital and Services
CSIRO Services
[END FIGURE TEXT]
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At CSIRO we shape the future. We do this by using science and technology to solve real issues. Our research makes a difference to industry, people and the planet.
CSIRO is committed to building connections with the best partners in Australia and the world to complement our science capability and accelerate the delivery of the impact of our research. We are a trusted scientific advisor and collaborate extensively with government, universities and industry.
Our operating model underpins the successful execution of our strategy and delivery of our goals. CSIRO operational arrangements recognise our differentiation as an impact organisation and to enable growth opportunities in each of our major roles in the national innovation system.
[FIGURE]
Our vision: Australia’s innovation catalyst, boosting Australia’s innovation performance
Our mission: Create value for customers through innovation that delivers positive impact for Australia
Creative, entrepreneurial, collaborative teams tackling big challenges through science, technology and innovation
Delivering value through innovative solutions for customers in industry, government and community
Creating new economic, environmental and social impact for Australia
Enterprise Infrastructure
[END FIGURE TEXT]
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Our new Strategy 2020 conveys the broad objectives for CSIRO, and sets out the activities we will pursue to achieve those objectives. The strategy positions us to play an active and significant role in Australia’s innovation agenda, address national and global research challenges, and contribute to the competitiveness, sustainability and productivity of Australia.
As part of this Strategy we recognise our role in supporting Australia’s innovation dilemma. Translating research inputs and outputs to innovation and research-business collaboration is constraining industry’s ability to improve productivity performance. The innovation system will continue to focus on the highest value activities and create deeper innovation relationships with a variety of stakeholders to enable the adoption of science and technology. CSIRO, with our new strategy, will continue to ensure that we integrate the best solutions for our customers, increase our flexibility and enhance Australia’s innovation performance by embedding a customer first program, a rigorous impact and investment framework, deepening our international relationships, and investing in future scientific platforms and capabilities.
With enterprise bargaining processes still in negotiations, our people continue to remain a key focus in our new strategy and we will seek to fully enable, support and empower creativity, risk taking and innovation. We will build upon our culture of diversity and inclusion while also expanding leadership opportunities.
Players in the innovation system remain highly dependent on government funding and it is our aim to enhance our agility by seeking to grow our ratio of revenue from non-government customers and to reduce our indirect costs through continual and coordinated improvement of our operating model and the experience of our customers.
The world is in the grips of a digital revolution, where information intensive science, systems and industries are transforming all that we know around us. CSIRO is well placed to embrace this opportunity due to strategic relationships with organisations such as National Information Communications Technology Australia (NICTA). Collaboratively, we can accelerate the creation of breakthrough technologies with real world impacts by deploying entrepreneurial capabilities, in order to catalyse Australian technology commercialisation.
CSIRO has a strong history of supporting the key drivers of the national economy. The future of Australian industry is likely to see increased entrepreneurship, disruption and risk taking. As the economy becomes more services-centric, with a focus on our small to medium size players, CSIRO will also shift to continue to meet the needs of Australian industry.
The increasing economic strength of economies in Asia and South America and their investments in research present both industry and science collaboration opportunities for CSIRO, which will in turn provide national benefit. In our immediate region, Asia is driving huge demand for a diverse range of goods and services. Our historical ties to Europe and North America will remain strong while we accelerate our overall rates of international engagement and operations to capture the higher potential impact value return to Australia.
The Strategy 2020 establishes eight strategic actions:
To create deeper innovation relationships with our customers and prioritise the highest value investments, we will:
To integrate the best solutions for our customers, increase our flexibility and enhance Australia’s innovation performance, we will:
To deliver connectivity to the global science, technology and innovation frontier as well as access new markets for Australian innovation, we will:
To increase our capacity to help reinvent existing industries and create new industries for Australia and deliver public good, we will:
To create breakthrough technology and knowledge and be a trusted advisor for Australia, we will:
To enhance our agility, financial sustainability and capacity to respond at the speed of business, we will:
To fully enable and support the innovation capacity of our creative people and teams to take risk and deliver to customers, we will:
To enhance staff safety and wellbeing and to further our aspiration towards zero harm, we will:
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This section provides an overview of the resources CSIRO is deploying against the key activities that we undertake to fulfill our objectives. It provides a summary of planned investment in the required capabilities put in place over the term of the plan. These figures represent total expenditure and are sourced through CSIRO’s Board approved internal budget and the CSIRO Portfolio Budget Statement.
Total expenses ($m) |
2015–16 |
2016–17 |
2017–18 |
2018–19 |
Programme 1.1 | Research – National Flagships, Science and Services |
1,096 |
1,112 |
1,124 |
1,160 |
Programme 1.2 | National Research Infrastructure – National Facilities and Collections |
157 |
160 |
162 |
170 |
Programme 1.3 | Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF) |
24 |
25 |
17 |
16 |
Total Expenses |
1,277 |
1,297 |
1,303 |
1,346 |
Total Average Staffing Level2 (number) |
4,970 |
5,007 |
4,986 |
4,964 |
Our Strategy 2020 will include initiatives aimed at enhancing workforce flexibility and mobility to address strategic challenges. These initiatives include increased overseas posting of staff, increased use of locally engaged overseas staff and secondment from industry into CSIRO and for researchers into industry.
We will require additional capability to support entrepreneurial initiatives. CSIRO will also be seeking to enhance our performance against diversity and inclusion goals, including increasing the participation of women and culturally and linguistically diverse staff in leadership roles. We will also increase the participation of indigenous staff in our workforce.
CSIRO’s Average Staffing Level (ASL) is anticipated to remain within a narrow variation range over the strategy period, however, CSIRO is currently in discussion with NICTA regarding the formation of a new entity and this may lead to an increase in staffing in the order of 260 FTE from 2015–16 if this proceeds.
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Average Staffing Level3 |
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Functional Area |
2015–16 |
2016–17 |
2017–18 |
2018–19 |
National Research Flagships4 |
3,190 |
3,213 |
3,199 |
3,185 |
CSIRO Services |
154 |
155 |
155 |
154 |
National Facilities and Collections |
468 |
472 |
470 |
468 |
Enterprise Support Services |
1,158 |
1,167 |
1,162 |
1,157 |
TOTAL |
4,970 |
5,007 |
4,986 |
4,964 |
We look to our staff to work together in a collaborative and positive way to achieve our aims. We seek to attract the best minds and be a place where people want to work, and where people are challenged and supported to achieve their full potential.
CSIRO staff are employed under section 32 of the Science and Industry Research Act 1949. The following table shows the number of staff employed in different job families.
Job families5 |
Average Staffing Level 2015–166 |
Administration Services |
847 |
Communication and Information |
177 |
General Management |
102 |
General Services |
10 |
Research Consulting |
38 |
Research Management |
262 |
Research Projects |
1,502 |
Research Scientist/ Research Engineer |
1,525 |
Specialist |
19 |
Technical Services |
488 |
TOTAL |
4,970 |
Note: Some movement in baseline data across functional areas has occurred with the introduction of the jobs framework in May 2015.
The National Research Flagships operate on a large scale over long timeframes, with a strong focus on identifying a clear path to deliver real impact and benefits in the Australian economy, community and environment. Programs within each business unit represent a dedicated focus area of research.
Overall Expenditure ($m)7 939.6
Overall staffing level 3,163
Total expenditure ($m)7 211.4
Average staffing level 689
Boost the productivity, profitability and agro-ecosystem health for Australia’s agri-food and agri-fibre industries and to partner globally towards food security in a resource and climate challenged world.
PROGRAMS:
Total Expenditure ($m)7 44.0
Average staffing level 131
Increase the productivity and effectiveness of Australia's health and bio security systems through technology and services.
PROGRAMS:
Total Expenditure ($m)7 59.0
Average staffing level 2968
Create intellectual property in digital technologies to deliver value from data to empower people, transforming the Australian economy through three new spin-outs per annum by 2019 and by creating $4 billion per annum in direct added value to the economy through government and industry partnerships.
PROGRAMS:
Total Expenditure ($m)7 120.8
Average staffing level 307
Deliver solutions that will enhance Australia’s economic competitiveness and regional energy security while enabling the transition to a lower emissions energy future.
PROGRAMS:
Total Expenditure ($m)7 62.3
Average staffing level 182
Maximise Australia’s food, agribusiness and health related value chain opportunities by creating innovative products, processes and services for domestic and premium export markets.
PROGRAMS:
Total Expenditure ($m)7 125.3
Average staffing level 508
Deliver solutions for sustainable development and stewardship of land, water, ecosystems and communities, valued at over $12 billion per annum in triple bottom line benefits.
PROGRAMS:
Total Expenditure ($m)7 119.7
Average staffing level 391
Deliver the scientific and engineering innovations to transition Australian manufacturing, creating the jobs of the future, export growth, and increasing the value of the sector.
PROGRAMS:
Total Expenditure ($m)7 89.4
Average staffing level 273
Deliver science and technology options for the discovery and efficient development of Australia’s $1 trillion mineral resource endowment and enable flow-on benefits to the wider national economy.
PROGRAMS:
Total Expenditure ($m)7 107.7
Average staffing level 386
To boost Australia’s prosperity and wellbeing through solutions that enable the sustainable economic, social, and environmental use of Australia’s marine estate, and management of the atmospheric environment.
PROGRAMS:
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CSIRO is accountable for the appropriate, effective and efficient use of the resources entrusted to us. The major components of CSIRO’s Planning and Performance Framework are illustrated in the figure below. The CSIRO Strategy describes the vision and key focus areas for CSIRO to further develop its role in the national and global innovation systems. It reaffirms our commitment to industry and connections with our global peers. The Corporate Plan details the actions required for successful implementation of the strategy on an annual basis, and detailed planning and review processes also operate at a range of levels, including research portfolios, and individuals, and with reports to the Executive Team and Board.
[FIGURE]
Advisory Boards, stakeholder engagement, evaluation, research and analysis
EXTERNAL INPUT
PLANNING LEVEL
PLANNING CASCADE
PERFORMANCE
[END FIGURE TEXT]
CSIRO monitors its performance and risks systematically throughout the year. This process informs our decision-making and provides opportunities to evaluate our relevance, effectiveness and efficiency.
CSIRO reports its performance in an annual report to Parliament. Here we report against our deliverables and key performance indicators in the Portfolio Budget Statement, and implementation of strategic priorities identified in the our strategy. CSIRO also monitors its performance throughout the year with:
[FIGURE]
Our Vision: Australia’s innovation catalyst, boosting Australia’s innovation performance
Strategic actions
Strategy KPIs
Activities
Programme KPIs
Reporting
[END FIGURE TEXT]
Our Strategy 2020 outlines how we monitor our success today and over the strategy period. Our strategy is also reported against annually to monitor our progress. Our performance indicators are:
In addition to our strategy performance measures, we assess our performance against the activities that we undertake to fulfill our mission and deliver on our commitment to the Parliament and people of Australia.
CSIRO’s Portfolio Budget Statement is divided into three programmes: Research – National Flagships, Science and Services, Research Infrastructure – National Facilities and Collections, and Science and Industry Endowment Fund. These programmes represent the major activities CSIRO undertakes to achieve our purpose.
Each activity includes annual performance indicators and targets to be used to assess and monitor the performance of CSIRO in achieving the outcomes of the programmes.
National Research Flagships aim to increase economic, social and environmental wellbeing in areas of complex challenges through the provision of information, scientific solutions and capability development. National challenges being addressed through this program include agriculture, environment, digital productivity, energy, food, health, manufacturing and mining. Flagships operate on a large scale and long timeframes, and have a strong focus on application and adoption of the research where it can drive improvements in Australia’s economic competitiveness and further the interests of the Australian community.
CSIRO Services delivers accessible, efficient innovation services to enable industry, government and the community customers to capture value from research. CSIRO Services provides commercial innovation services, education and outreach programs, and publishing, and builds new networks and relationships that allow our customers to benefit from research and innovation.
Key performance indicators CSIRO Research and Services
CSIRO hosts Australia’s national research facilities, scientific infrastructure and biological collections on behalf of the nation to assist with the delivery of research. These specialised laboratories and research facilities are available to international and Australian users from industry and research. Facilities are resourced with CSIRO staff to run and support the facility’s operations.
Key performance indicators CSIRO Research Infrastructure
The SIEF was established by Commonwealth legislation, the Science and Industry Endowment Act 1926, for the purpose of supporting scientific and industrial research for the benefit of Australia and its people. The SIEF makes strategic investments in scientific research that addresses issues of national priority for Australia.
Key performance indicators SIEF
CSIRO is committed to the effective identification and management of risk. Acceptance and effective management of risk is vital to successfully capturing the opportunities created through scientific research and delivering on our purpose as an organisation. The management of risk is the responsibility of all our people.
CSIRO develops and maintains an Organisational Risk Plan in alignment with our Strategic Plan that reflects CSIRO’s approach and posture in managing the risks that threaten the achievement of our goals and objectives. CSIRO’s brand and reputation requires careful management of the following key areas of risk:
CSIRO's reputation hinges upon the integrity and quality of our science and ability to deliver positive impact for Australia. This risk is managed across all levels of the organisation in ways that include establishing rigour in our scientific processes, effective governance processes to ensure transparency of decision making, financial management practices to ensure efficient use of resources and values based engagement and commercial dealings with customers and stakeholders.
CSIRO recognises its obligations as a government entity conducting a broad range of activities across multiple highly regulated environments. Compliance risk is managed systematically across our Lines of Business, enabled and supported by Enterprise Support functions.
Delivering innovative and impactful solutions for our customers requires challenging science with a high inherent risk of failure. To manage these challenges we have robust processes for science quality and integrity and focused capability development activities to enhance the skills of our people.
Impact and value creation for customers is enabled by access to quality science, technology and capability. Failure to identify and then deliver impact and value is a fundamental risk. We manage this through continually developing and improving the end to end customer experience, applying a rigorous impact and investment planning, monitoring and evaluation framework and identifying, establishing and managing deep partnerships and collaborations to ensure that we integrate the best solutions for our customers.
People are at the heart of CSIRO's capability and capacity to deliver innovative solutions for our customers. We manage risks associated with the development and well being of our people through a values based approach supported by processes and initiatives relating to recruitment, learning and development, workforce and succession planning and staff wellbeing.
CSIRO’s Risk System is a comprehensive framework that supports the identification and assessment of risk across the organisation within strategic, operational and tactical contexts.
[FIGURE]
Output elements
Enabling elements
[END FIGURE TEXT]
Enterprise Governance provides a framework for direction, control and accountability which enables CSIRO to achieve its objectives.
CSIRO's Governance Framework provides for structures and processes to support:
CSIRO recognises that good governance cannot be measured in purely financial terms. As a public sector body, CSIRO's performance is measured against broader national, social and community objectives.
The CSIRO Board is responsible to the Australian Government for the overall governance, strategy and performance of the Organisation. CSIRO is accountable to the Minister for Industry and Science as part of the Industry Portfolio.
The primary functions of the Board are to:
The Board is also accountable for the controlled entities of CSIRO that are an integral part of our strategy:
The Board operates in part through two standing committees:
The Board comprises a non-executive Chairman, up to eight other non-executive Members and a full-time Chief Executive. Current Board Members and their appointment dates are:
Our Executive Team comprises the:
The Executive Team’s role is to determine matters, or make recommendations to the Chief Executive and through the Chief Executive to the Board, regarding the direction and operations of the Organisation.
The ET is supported by two committees:
The Australia Telescope Steering Committee provides independent advice to the Director of the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) on the scientific and technical operations of the ATNF. The committee advises the ATNF Director on the broad directions of the ATNF's scientific activities and longer term strategies for the development of the ATNF and are advocates to develop the Australian Telescope as a world class national facility for use by Australian and international researchers.
Committee members are both academic and industry stakeholders.
The Marine National Facility Steering Committee provides independent advice to the Director Marine National Facilities (MNF) on strategic issues such as maximising the use of the RV Investigator and ensuring all science undertaken through the RV Investigator has a national benefit. They act as advocates for the MNF and for CSIRO’s marine based research capability with its many stakeholders within Australia and internationally.
Committee members are from academic, industry and government backgrounds.
The Consultative Council is to consider and report to the Board on any matter affecting or of general interest to the officers of the Organisation, including any matters that are referred to the Council by the Board.
The Consultative Council comprises of a Chairperson and up to seven Management Members, all appointed by the Board.
The Flagship Advisory Committees provide independent, external advice to CSIRO through the Flagship Director on how to maximise the effectiveness of the Flagship portfolio to achieve its goals. They also assist CSIRO on broader strategic issues relevant to the sectors in which the Flagship operates.
Committee members are from industry and other stakeholders.
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Footnotes