Setting priorities for publicly funded research: the CSIRO priorities method

Garrett Upstill; Thomas H. Spurling

doi:10.1071/HR25003

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Setting priorities for publicly funded research: the CSIRO priorities method

Garrett Upstill

^A ^* and Thomas H. Spurling ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Office of the Swinburne Chief Scientist, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, Vic 3122, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: gupstill@gmail.com

Historical Records of Australian Science 36, HR25003 https://doi.org/10.1071/HR25003

Published online: 7 April 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Academy of Science. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

The CSIRO Priorities Method is a way to rank and display research priorities for publicly funded research. This paper describes the development and evolution of the method that was employed in CSIRO throughout the 1990s and, since that time, in several other research organisations in Asia and Europe. It comprises three elements: a framework, a process, and a results screen, and has been used for priority setting at a national, organisational, program and project level. Its key attributes are its simplicity, robustness, and adaptability. This paper fills a gap in the literature about this Method by summarising its development and use, and by providing online references to previously unavailable documents.

Keywords: national, organisational and program priorities, R&D priorities, robust adaptable method, scientific priorities and resource allocation.

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