The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is to take on Australia’s environmental challenges by setting up a new business unit dedicated to addressing the current and future of the country, its environment and its future.
Executive Director, Environment, Energy and Resources at CSIRO, Peter Mayfield said the new Environment Business Unit is to be created home to the majority of CSIRO’s environmental research capability.
Dr Mayfield said the move aimed to strengthen the Organisation’s ability to address some of the most complex and interrelated environmental issues facing Australia.
“The new team brings together the former Land and Water and Oceans and Atmosphere business units to consolidate CSIRO’s marine, atmospheric, water and terrestrial environment disciplines, as well as significant social and economic research capability,” Dr Mayfield said.
“Our landscapes, biodiversity, air, coast and seas are facing pressures as never before,” he said.
“Science, research and innovation will be critical to turn the tide of environment decline and degradation in the future.
“This new Business Unit will be CSIRO’s largest, building on a solid foundation and leveraging the strong synergies across the two former business units.”
Dr Mayfield said the Environment Business Unit would help Australia to understand and respond better the complex drivers that influence our environment and wellbeing.
He said the Unit was an exciting development for Australian research.
“It reinforces the importance of environmental science and will support our delivery of high-impact work across areas that include Great Barrier Reef, climate resilience, terrestrial water management, atmospheric and ocean research as well as the social and economic dimensions of these issues,” the Executive Director said.
Dr Mayfield said no research positions had been impacted with the formation of the new Business Unit, which is to be led by Dr Dan Metcalfe, a senior science leader at CSIRO with a strong record in science leadership across the environment domain.
