Australia: CSIRO anxious over taxpayer-funded research versus private

…Bruce Robinson, convenor of the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas, is more hopeful now that his several submissions to the CSIRO over the years will be taken seriously.

“I think the CSIRO should have done more on oil vulnerability,” said Mr Robinson, a physical chemist and former radio-astronomer.


“I have proposed a number of times to the organisation that it establish an oil vulnerability impact centre to co-ordinate research in this field.

“The nation needs to assess the risks and opportunities of oil depletion and explore oil savings.”

But Mr Robinson said his submissions were usually met with ambivalence.

“The CSIRO’s work in the resources field is deep because minerals have commercial sponsors.

“But because other fields don’t have sponsors with deep pockets, some of the science that concentrates on public good is overlooked,” Mr Robinson said.

Herald-Sun