2022-23 Federal Budget

CSIRO

The 2022-23 Federal Budget includes funding for a range of new initiatives in which CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, will play a central role in turning science into solutions:

  • Almost $1.2 billion for the first phase of a National Space Mission for Earth Observation, which will see Australia design, build, and operate four new satellites. The National Space Mission will be led by the Australian Space Agency in partnership with CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology and Defence.
  • To support flood affected communities, CSIRO will receive $10.4 million over two years to identify options and opportunities for mitigating risk and building resilience in the Northern Rivers Region.
  • As part of the Government’s University Research Commercialisation Action Plan, CSIRO will receive $37.4m over four years to deliver the ON program to participants from universities and publicly funded research agencies. Around 100 teams each year for the next four years will access the ON Prime program, with some progressing to the ON Accelerate program.

These initiatives are in addition to previously announced programs, funded under the 2021 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) and the 2022-23 budget:

  • CSIRO will partner with India to tackle shared COVID-19 economic recovery opportunities. These include an Innovation and Technology Challenge, Critical Minerals Research Partnership and Green Steel Partnership. CSIRO will receive $43.2 million in funding to support these initiatives.
  • CSIRO will play a central role in the Government’s University Research Commercialisation Action Plan through:
  • $150m to expand the CSIRO Innovation Fund, managed by Main Sequence, to accelerate the commercialisation of research and increase industry collaboration as part of Australia’s Economic Accelerator.
  • $21.5 million over five years to expand CSIRO’s Industry PhD program as part of a $296 million investment designed to add 1,800 industry PhDs and over 800 industry fellows over 10 years. This aims to fundamentally reshape the workforce of Australia’s universities. For CSIRO’s Industry PhD program, we aim to scale up to 50 Industry PhD students commencing each year.
  • The Trailblazer Universities program, where CSIRO will receive $30 million for participating universities to access specialist equipment to help increase research translation and commercialisation capabilities. CSIRO may also collaborate with successful Trailblazers Universities on other aspects of their activities under this program.

Through these programs, CSIRO will continue to work with industry, government, and the research community to support Australia’s recovery and build future resilience.

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