Does 50% of Australia climate agency CSIRO funding come from private industries? Fact Check
Claim: Podcaster claims that 50% of Australia’s climate agency CSIRO funding comes from private industry.
Conclusion: Misleading. Evidence from CSIRO’s audited annual report shows that the 50% of its funding is not from private agencies.
Rating : Misleading 
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On 30 July 2025, Sam Bamford, the host of the 2.worlds.collide.podcast claimed that fifty per cent of CSIRO funding comes from private industry. Some of the companies he named were “Tesla, EV cars and batteries, Vestas, which is a wind turbine giant, and AGL…”
View the Instagram video below –
View this post on Instagram
This has been shared across Instagram and TikTok, with some reposts amplifying it over Instagram. Such posts can be found (here) and (here), resharing the same clip from the original podcast.
FACT CHECK
DigitEYE India decided to investigate the claim and discovered that it is false. 2023–24 CSIRO total revenue, A$1.72 billion account for the clear majority leaning towards Government sources. The 50% claim is not supported by the audited data.
CSIRO, established in 1926, is Australia’s national science agency, conducting research in areas like agriculture, health, energy and climate. It operates as a statutory authority under the federal government, with funding derived from appropriations, external contracts, royalties, and partnerships.
Firstly, we conducted a web search with the phrase “50% CISRO funding from private companies. We came across the most recent fiscal year, 2023-24 CSIRO report which itemises revenue sources in page 102.
As showcased above, the total revenue (in million) for the year 2023-2024 was A$1,722.3 million. From the total revenue, A$1,009 million came from government appropriations. Within the A$713 million of “external revenue,” the Australian private sector contributed A$76.2 million which accounts to 10.7% of the external revenue and not 50%.
Moreover, after checking the recent “Value of CSIRO – 2024 Update”, we got to understand the structure better. CSIRO’s corporate plans and impact assessments consistently describe a mixed funding model anchored by government appropriation complemented by external revenue from contracts and grants.
The above report (Page 7) summarizes the structure as 60% government appropriation, 28% R&D contracts, 13% grants/other , again reinforcing that the majority is not private-sector money. View this section below –
Thus, the claim is misleading and even adding public bodies like NASA funding would still leave “private industry” well below 50%.
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