Australia's premier science agency has weathered Labor's tight budget to come away with all its major programs intact.
The Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO) said that the budget would leave it operating in a tight fiscal environment but that it would avoid major program cuts.
The government last night increased CSIRO's base appropriation funding from 1.5 per cent or $11.1 million in line with its existing funding agreement the agency.
The government also gave the agency approval to go ahead with its $200m development of its planned Global Precincts facilities in Canberra and Victoria.
It was also given around $12m in funding to continue operating the Marine National Facility.
Budget papers reveal that CSIRO, which is funded through an agreement with the government which runs over four years, expected its total expenditure to hover around $1.3-$1.4 billion until 2017.
The government’s funding commitment to the agency was expected to rise from around $757m this year to $782m by 2017.
National ICT Australia (NICTA), another research body partly funded by the Commonwealth, did not fair as well.
The government has cut down funding to one of NICTA’s centres of excellence over the coming year to help fund a $12.9m expansion of the Department of Broadband's plan to "showcase" the NBN through local governments.
"We were not expecting new funding to be announced in last night's statement. NICTA still has over two more years of funding under the existing four year program and continues to receive strong support across government and Parliament. We are in ongoing discussions about funding beyond the current term," a spokeswoman for NICTA said.
