CSIR and Australian industry: 1926–49
Garrett Upstill A B , Thomas H. Spurling A and Terence J. Healy A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Centre for Transformative Innovation, Faculty of Business and Law, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, Vic. 3122, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: hupstill@swin.edu.au
Historical Records of Australian Science 32(1) 52-66 https://doi.org/10.1071/HR20012
Published: 16 October 2020
Abstract
The primary function of CSIR, founded in 1926, was to promote primary and secondary industries in Australia. In its first decade, CSIR developed a successful model for delivering research of benefit to the primary sector. The period from the late 1930s was characterised by the expansion of CSIR, notably into secondary-industry research, and its wide-ranging and effective response to the industry and government demands during the Second World War. In the post-war years CSIR placed increasing emphasis on longer term, underlying research, as the way to benefit Australian industry. This shift raised problems for technology transfer to the secondary industry sector; it also shaped the agenda of CSIR’s successor organisation, CSIRO, in the decades after its formation in 1949.
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