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Research groups and initiatives Employing over 6600 staff, the CSIRO maintains 55 sites across Australia and biological control research stations in France and Mexico. The primary roles of the CSIRO include contributing to meeting the objectives and responsibilities of the Australian Federal Government and providing new ways to benefit the Australian community and the economic and social performance of a number of industry sectors through research and development. The CSIRO includes the following research divisions: Agribusiness, Energy and Transport, (mineral) Exploration and Mining, Marine and Atmospheric Research, Environment and Natural Resources, Information, Communication and Services, Manufacturing, Mineral Resources and Health. "Flagship" initiative The CSIRO "Flagship" initiative was designed to integrate, focus and direct national scientific resources. In May 2005, the government announced the launch of CSIRO's $97 million Flagship Collaboration Fund, which is intended to encourage cooperative research between universities, CSIRO and other research agencies. As of May 2005, the CSIRO supported the following 6 "Flagships": The Air Quality Modelling and Dispersion Team CSIRO's Air Quality Modelling and Dispersion Team is a part of the Marine and Atmospheric Research division. Some of the widely used air quality dispersion models developed by CSIRO are: The "Australian Air Quality Forecasting System" is provided jointly by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO. The Bureau of Meteorology generates the high resolution weather forecasts and CSIRO has created computer models to calculate pollution levels. History A precursor to the CSIRO, the Advisory Council of Science and Industry, was established in 1916 at the intitiative of Prime Minister Billy Hughes. However, the Advisory Council struggled with insufficient funding during the First World War. In 1920 the Council was renamed the "Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry", and was led by George Handley Knibbss (1921-26), but continued to struggle financially. In 1926 The Science and Industry Research Act replaced the Institute with the 'Council for Scientific and Industrial Research' (CSIR). The CSIR was structured to represent the federal structure of Australian government, and had state-level committees and a central council. As well as this improved structure, the CSIR benefited from strong bureaucratic management under George Julius, Albert Rivett, and Arnold Richardson. CSIR research focussed on primary and secondary industries. Early in its existence, it established divisions studying animal health and animal nutrition. After the depression, the CSIR extended into secondary industries such as manufacturing. The CSIRO today has expanded into a wider range of scientific inquiry. This expansion began with the establishment of the CSIRO in 1949 which, as well as a name change, reconstituted the organisation and its administrative structure. Under Ian Clunies Ross as chairman, the CSIRO pursued new areas such as radioastronomy and industrial chemistry. Historic research CSIR owned the first computer in Australia, CSIRAC, built as part of a project began in the Sydney Radiophysics Laboratory in 1947. The CSIR Mk 1 ran its first program in 1949, the fifth electronic computer in the world. It was over 1000 times faster than the mechanical calculators available at the time. It was decommissioned in 1955 and recommissioned in Melbourne as CSIRAC in 1956 as a general purpose computing machine used by over 700 projects until 1964.• Domain name The CSIRO was the first Australian organisation to start using the internet, and as such was free to register the second level domain csiro.au (as opposed to csiro.org.au or csiro.com.au). Guidelines were introduced in 1996 to regulate the use of the .au domain. Previous Chief Executives Recent controversies In 2005 the organisation also gained worldwide attention (and criticism) for publishing and promoting the Total Wellbeing Diet book which features a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. The book has sold over half a million copies in Australia and over 100,000 overseas • but was criticised in an editorial by Nature for giving scientific credence to a "fashionable" diet book sponsored by meat and dairy industries •. In 2006 CSIRO was again in the news, this time with reports that they were struggling with reduced funding and job cuts •. It was reported that the organisation was increasingly affected by political processes as claims of gags on scientists on the topic of global warming emerged •. The Labor Party attempted to open a Senate enquiry into the matter but it was rejected by the Government. • See Also External Sources Currie, George; Graham, John, The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901-1926, CSIRO, Melbourne, 1966 | |||||||||
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