CSIRO announces Future Science Platforms

CSIRO has announced that it will grow its investment in new areas of breakthrough science to over $52 million per year by 2020, helping to turn Australia’s challenges into opportunities and invent a better future.

The organisation says its six Future Science Platforms (FSPs) have the potential to support the reinvention and creation of new industries and new jobs for Australia. According to Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall, investing in challenging and riskier science will ensure research continues to meet the needs of industry, community and the environment in a rapidly changing world.

“Exactly as planned in Strategy 2020, we’ve freed up resources to enable this initial $17 million investment in 2016–17 to launch the FSPs, growing to over $50 million per year by 2020,” Dr Marshall said.

“The platforms fuel deeper collaboration across disciplines as we tackle things that haven’t been done before, which is exactly what we need to stay ahead of accelerating global disruption of all kinds from economic to environmental.”

The six Future Science Platforms are:

• Environomics — Unlocking genetic and other knowledge from our vast species biodiversity so we can preserve and manage ecosystems, better manage economically useful species, detect biosecurity threats and create new products.
• Synthetic Biology — The design, fabrication and construction of new biological parts, devices, systems and machines, as well as the redesign of existing biological systems for useful purposes.
• Deep Earth Imaging — Discovering the previously undiscovered minerals, energy and water resources that lie deep under the earth or sea.
• Digiscape — Helping agricultural industries to be more productive and providing more valuable knowledge to environmental policymakers through a new generation of decision tools.
• Probing Biosystems — Revolutionising health care and agriculture through devices and systems to obtain real-time information from living organisms about their health and wellbeing.
• Active Integrated Matter — Reinventing fields as diverse as manufacturing, agriculture, emergency services, infrastructure and mining through combining advanced materials, robotics, sensing technologies, data processing and autonomous capabilities.

“FSPs will attract a new generation of researchers to work collaboratively on genuinely challenging science and help invent Australia’s future,” Dr Marshall said.

“The platforms empower CSIRO’s strategy of solving Australia’s toughest challenges and getting science off the lab bench and into people’s hands as quickly as possible to improve Australia’s sustainability and prosperity.”