WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Fifty per cent of CSIRO funding comes from private industry.
OUR VERDICT
False. Three-quarters of CSIRO's annual revenue comes from the Australian federal and state/territory governments.
AAP FACTCHECK - A podcaster is falsely claiming Australia's scientific research organisation receives half its funding from private industry.
Audited financial statements show 75 per cent of the CSIRO's $1.72 billion in total revenue for 2023/24 came from Australia's federal and state governments.
The remaining quarter is a mix of private and public revenue that includes grants, sales of consulting and research services, royalty fees, and industry co-investments.
The false claim appears in an Instagram video by an Australian podcast host being shared online.
"CSIRO now gets 50 per cent of its funding from the private industry, including Tesla, EV cars and batteries, Vestas, which is a wind turbine giant, and AGL," the man says.
He did not respond to AAP FactCheck's inquiries for more information about the claim.
CSIRO reported $1.72 billion in revenue in 2023/24, according to financial records in the agency's annual report (page 96).
Of this figure $1.01 billion was revenue from federal government appropriations and a further $295 million came from dealings with federal, state and territory governments.
That's at least three-quarters of the CSIRO's revenue, with the remaining quarter coming from a mix of different sources.
Those sources include the Australian private sector, which accounted for just $76.2 million of the CSIRO's total revenue in 2023/24 - or 4.4 per cent.
Another $96.8 million in revenue, or 5.6 per cent, comes from overseas companies and governments, the CSIRO said.
"CSIRO's revenue from overseas entities is earned through conducting science and engineering activities with a range of partners," a CSIRO spokesperson told AAP FactCheck.
"These partners include companies, global funding bodies and public entities such as NASA."
A further $42 million is sourced from rural industry and development corporations (RDCs) and $8.3 million comes from cooperative research centres, which the CSIRO said includes private groups.
"CSIRO receives grant funding from RDCs assisting CSIRO to conduct specific research and development projects," the spokesperson said.
"For some projects, there can be contributions from other parties to the costs of the research and development."
In total, CSIRO received less than a quarter of its funding from combined Australian and international private industry in 2023/24.
An exact proportion is unavailable because the CSIRO does not break down every contact or business arrangement it enters into within its annual financial reports, however it does specify that 75 per cent of revenue is from Australian governments - state and territory, as well as national.
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