Our Governance

CSIRO is an Australian Government statutory authority and operates under the Science and Industry Research Act (1949).

The CSIRO Board is responsible to the Australian Government for the overall strategy, governance and performance of CSIRO.

Sector Advisory Councils provide advice to CSIRO on the high level strategic directions for R&D in their industry sectors.

Flagship Advisory Committees provide advice to CSIRO on the planned program of research and development for each Flagship.

The Public Research Agency Charter with the CSIRO is to provide guidance to CSIRO when engaging in public debate. (3 pages)

Read an overview of our customer service standards, staff conduct and how we evaluate our performance.

The CSIRO Board is responsible to the Australian Government for the overall strategy, governance and performance of CSIRO.

The Board Audit Committee assists the CSIRO Board by monitoring and reporting on the key governance areas of risk management, internal control and compliance.

The Board Remuneration Committee assists CSIRO and its Board to ensure the Organisation has an appropriate and competitive remuneration structure.

The Committee assists the CSIRO Board to fulfil its governance responsibilities in relation to CSIRO’s business development and commercialisation activities and major procurement and property transactions.

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 gives a general right to the public and to staff to seek access to documents held by CSIRO.

CSIRO has a comprehensive set of organisational policies to govern its activities.

CSIRO's fundamental purpose is to achieve positive impact from science on behalf of Australia. This policy aims to assist CSIRO staff in their external communicaton activities.

In line with Senate requirements, CSIRO tables indexed lists of files created in the Organisation’s central office twice a year. These lists are available to download.

The CSIRO Health and Safety and Environment (HSE) annual report records the performance standards achieved and documents the actions taken to meet our HSE organisational strategic goals.