We assisted CSIRO establish its own research ethics committee, policies and proportional arrangements. AHRECS designed and delivered training for committee members and conducted training sessions for the organisation’s researchers that were well received around the country. We also assisted with the change process (i.e. introducing an ethical review framework, without it being viewed as an impost on research) and helped CSIRO avoid some the frustrations and problems commonly faced by universities.

CSIRO is Australia’s national science agency. While its focus is the biophysical sciences, up to five per cent of its researchers are anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and economists who work with scientists in multidisciplinary teams to explore the connections between natural, agricultural, industrial and urban ecosystems and social and economic processes inside and outside Australia. These teams also explore community and agency perspectives on climate change and energy technologies, and study human-technology interactions in order to create new tools and platforms for information and communication technologies.