Australia is at a ‘fork in the road’ on science: CSIRO chief

CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton says a combination of poor productivity performance, the US’ retreat from science and alarming changes in geopolitical circumstances has brought Australia to a “fork in the road” moment.

He has also welcomed the Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ second term focus on productivity, but says it presents the government with some stark choices in the funding of science.

Dr Hilton, who is approaching two years in the national science agency’s CEO, says the Strategy Examination of R&D being led by Tesla chair Robyn Denholm presents an opportunity for an overdue national conversation about what Australia wants from its research institutions.

“As a nation, we need to [decide] what does our science sector look like, and what do we want from our government-funded science agencies,” he said.

In this interview on the Commercial Disco podcast, Dr Hilton says the challenges of falling government funding and business investment in R&D were not new, but they had become more urgent.

“It’s a fork in the road for Australia. We have an opportunity to consider the role of science in our national life in a way that is pretty stark,” Dr Hilton said.

“Hearing the Treasurer talk about productivity being a key challenge for the government in the second term was music to CSIRO’s ears, especially coming so quickly after the election.

“If I think about what CSIRO does for many different sectors of Australian industry, the two things that come to mind are productivity improvement and sustainability.”

But the funding decisions are challenging. Ideas and science and innovation are the engine room of any country’s productivity performance, he said, and Australia is in global competition for those ideas.

“If we want Australia to be prosperous, if we want to maintain the standard of living for our kids and our grandkids, then we really need science and ideas to drive that productivity.

“And CSIRO can certainly help. That’s not the only part of the solution [in relation to productivity], but we can certainly help,” he said.

The US retreat from science was both visceral and real, Dr Hilton said, and came at a time when China was doubling down on science and research funding.

He said the impact in Australia had been felt in the form of survey letters from different US government agencies to research partners at Australian universities and CSIRO that put US funding at risk.

CSIRO chief executive officer Dr Doug Hilton

The reality is that US taxpayers have been funding Australian research partners at about $500 million.

“That’s about half a billion dollars of funding from the US taxpayer that comes into Australia to support science here,” he said.

“The first question that crossed my mind was: ‘In what world did we think that would continue forever?’

“The question that drives is: What do we need to do as a country to stand on our own two feet and do the science that we value as a sovereign nation?

“So that’s about sovereign capability in science, whether it’s in high performance computing, whether it’s in critical minerals research, [or] the energy transition, whether it’s understanding ocean so we can predict our climate.”

Making decisions about our sovereign science and research capabilities – and confidently pursuing those capabilities – would inevitably deliver opportunities for collaborating with other like-minded partners around the world.

“Everybody is looking at what the world will be like in the next five years, and who are the partners that share values and share … a trust in science,” Dr Hilton said.

Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.

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