Australia Institute “discussion paper”

It is healthy for people to question the credentials of a vehicle such as GISERA and CSIRO welcomes such scrutiny.

The paper titled “Independence Pay: Gas industry-funded research at the CSIRO” contains numerous errors about GISERA, its governance structure and research that is conducted in and outside of GISERA.

CSIRO flatly rejects the implication by the Australia Institute in its “discussion paper” that research and researchers’ independence and integrity are compromised by industry funding. GISERA has established processes to ensure the independence, transparency and integrity of all research undertaken.

The governance framework includes the following mechanisms that ensure CSIRO independence of all research conducted under the GISERA agreement:

• National Research Management Committee (NRMC) – to oversee the finance and completion of milestones of all research projects approved by the Regional Research Advisory Committees. It also provides strategic direction to the Regional Research Advisory Committees as requested. It is comprised of 5 industry, 3 CSIRO and 1 government representative. To ensure independence, the number of votes held by Industry Parties must always equal the number of votes held by CSIRO representatives, with the independent representative having a casting vote. This is achieved by each Industry Party representative applying a National Research Management Committee Multiplication Factor to their vote. The GISERA Director has no voting rights. Communique of these meetings are publicly available on the GISERA website.
• Regional Research Advisory Committee (RRAC) – to review and approve research projects that address community concerns, issues and potential impacts as a result of unconventional gas development. Majority of members are independent stakeholders; Queensland RRAC (50% independent, 20% industry, 20% CSIRO and 10% Government stakeholders) and NSW RRAC (40% independent, 20% industry, 20% CSIRO and 20% Government stakeholders). Establishment of each RRAC was on its own merits, there was no splitting of the Queensland RRAC. The GISERA Director has no voting rights. All decisions and discussion at RRAC meetings are recorded in the meeting minutes and made available for public scrutiny on the GISERA website.
• All public good research is made publicly available once it has cleared CSIRO’s established peer-review process.
• Any risks to public or environmental health and safety identified by GISERA research are reported to relevant authorities.

There are clear safeguards in the GISERA contract around CSIRO’s ability to publish independent peer reviewed scientific research. Companies do not have rights to alter, edit or respond to research reports written by CSIRO under GISERA. When companies sign-up to GISERA they agree to complete transparency of reporting under these conditions before project proposals have been approved. These are standard protocols CSIRO enters into in all of its major alliance arrangements. They ensure the National science agency’s independence.