CSIRO Staff Association president Dr Michael Borgas described the scientific agency’s decision to cut jobs within its wireless and network technology program as “baffling” and has urged management to rethink its position. In a post on the union’s website yesterday afternoon, Dr Borgas said CSIRO’s decision to cut several key research positions in its wireless labs was an “acutely short-sighted decision by CSIRO’s ICT management.” The CSIRO today responded, indicating that it was “relatively early on in the process” and it “had identified three people – one scientist and two technical – who are surplus to the ICT centre’s requirements, but not necessarily to CSIRO.” The agency’s wireless and network technology program employs about 60 full-time staff in Sydney and at other critical locations, such as remote Western Australia where the CSIRO is building the world’s fastest radio telescope under the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) project. “The development of WiFi has delivered both fame and fortune to CSIRO and the Australian government,” Borgas said in the post. “It was only in April that another three US companies settled another patent agreement with the CSIRO worth $220 million. “So to hear eight months later that CSIRO plans to sack researchers working on the next generation of wireless innovation is almost incomprehensible.” A CSIRO spokesperson said “investment in different areas of research is governed by an internal science investment prioritisation process.” “The major projects, including the one the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope, are appropriately staffed and research projects will be maintained,” the spokesperson said. In yesterday’s post, Borgas quoted an email CSIRO’s ICT management divisions sent to the union, which stated that “planned reductions would not eliminate any scientific capability from within the ICT centre.” He said claims by management that science research would remain unaffected were hard to swallow because less than 12 months ago, a “restructure in ICT resulted in the loss of five research positions. “Management’s new plan to axe another three research positions from the program represents a stuff cut of five per cent; it is reasonable to predict that the loss of these additional research positions will result in some loss of capability,” he said in the post. He added that it “was not too late to revisit the decision” and “these research positions are worth saving.” In the 1990s, a CSIRO team of scientists invented and patented wireless LAN technology. The team’s discovery was acknowledged with a European Inventor Award in mid-2012. The CSIRO has reaped almost $500 million in WiFi patent royalties over the past decade, including $220 million this year. Follow Byron Connolly on Twitter: @ByronConnolly Related content News Amazon to lay off 9,000 more workers, including some at AWS The latest round of Amazon layoffs will impact AWS, Twitch, advertising and PXT, CEO Andy Jassy said. By Jon Gold Mar 20, 2023 3 mins Technology Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost What’s next for network operations Broadcom: 2023 Tech Trends That Transform IT By Serge Lucio, Vice President and General Manager, Agile Operations Division Mar 20, 2023 8 mins IT Leadership Networking BrandPost Digital transformation obstacles: Stubborn challenges, what to do about them Value Stream Management is an increasingly essential approach to strategic transformation initiatives. To help teams more fully capitalize on the opportunities it presents, Broadcom is holding its third annual VSM Summit. By Marla Schimke, Head of Product and Growth Marketing, Broadcom's Enterprise Software Division Mar 20, 2023 3 mins Devops Software Development Feature CEO directives: Top 5 initiatives for IT leaders As organizations change course with economic gyrations, collaboration between IT and business becomes priority No. 1 for CEOs. By Stacy Collett Mar 20, 2023 7 mins IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe