Dozens of CSIRO jobs in Newcastle could be lost as part of a national cost-cutting purge.
The national science agency announced on Tuesday that it would cut between 375 and 500 non-research roles in a bid to reduce costs by at least $100 million.
CSIRO flagged the cuts in April, but until now has remained vague on impacts to its Enterprise Services division, which will be the worst affected.
Enterprise Services roles include corporate communications, IT and human resources, business development, facilities management and finance.
Newcastle is home to the CISRO Energy Centre at Mayfield, however, a number of staff attached to other teams are also located there.
Nine energy research jobs energy centre as part of a national restructure that occurred in 2020.
In an email to staff, chief executive Doug Hilton wrote to staff, announcing that "the task ahead is significant".
"To support CSIRO's financial sustainability, we need to reduce costs across [Enterprise Services] by 25 per cent - which is at least $100m," Professor Hilton wrote.
"Up until now, it has been difficult to quantify this in terms of roles, due to the variety of factors at play.
CSIRO Staff Association Secretary Susan Tonks slammed the job cuts.
"The announcement that up to five hundred research support roles could be cut represents a dark day for CSIRO and is a terrible outcome for Australia's premier science agency," she said.
"These cuts are a body blow for CSIRO and have the potential to cripple research output as scientists scramble to cover support gaps.
"However, we know that research positions at CSIRO are not safe and the cuts just keep on coming."
A CSIRO spokesman said the organisation was working to implement the changes with minimal impact on staff while still delivering the best possible impact for Australia.
"Australia needs a strong, vibrant, and financially sustainable national science agency that maximises its research investment to increase impact for the nation," he said.
"Our goal is to grow CSIRO's research efforts by ensuring we have the right mix of science and skills to tackle the big problems facing the Australian community."
The staff association said the CSIRO was suffering the worst job cuts in a decade. These include confirmed cuts in health and biosecurity (43), agriculture and food (30), manufacturing (5) and potentially 500 in enterprise services.
More cuts are expected at Data 61 (up to 120). There are also rumours that there will be significant job losses in the environment business unit (65).
The CSIRO spokesman said research units were continually undertaking workforce planning to ensure they had the right scale and scientific capability in place to deliver against national priorities.
Changes being considered in CSIRO's research units are being undertaken in line with this.
"We have well established processes, policies and commitments under our Enterprise Agreement to guide how we plan the structure and size of our research workforce and consult with staff prior to decisions being made," he said.
CSIRO's baseline appropriate funding has remained the same at $916.5 million in the 2024-25 financial year, but the agency is adapting to the end of COVID-era additional funding.
