The Australian government’s scientific agency has joined more than a dozen universities in being sent a questionnaire from the Trump administration asking to confirm whether it aligns with US government interests.
On Tuesday, the CSIRO revealed it had received the correspondence from the US. A spokesperson at the CSIRO said it was aware of a “small number” of researchers who had received the questionnaire in recent weeks and was “determining an appropriate response”.
The questions include whether the organisation receives funding from China, whether it is a climate or “environmental justice” project, and whether it is taking “appropriate measures” to defend against “gender ideology” in line with Trump’s executive order on gender.
Seven universities including the Australian National University, Monash University, University of Technology Sydney, University of New South Wales, Charles Darwin University, Macquarie University and the University of Western Australia have had their US funding cut on research projects since the Trump administration came into power, the education department confirmed.
Separately, researchers from at least 13 universities who receive US funding have been sent surveys, seeking a response within 48 hours to more than 30 questions to support “program determinations”, university sources told the Guardian.
Some 40% of Australian publications in the physical sciences involve American collaborators – including on vaccine development, cyclone tracking capability and observational systems that monitor, forecast and respond to extreme weather events.
“CSIRO has a number of touch points with the US government as part of our research portfolio,” a CSIRO spokesperson said.
“As the situation is still developing, it would be premature to speculate on how the changes in the US will affect CSIRO’s US collaborations and partnerships. However, CSIRO has not received formal advice that our science collaborations will be impacted.”
It comes as the federal government is under mounting pressure to respond to the US attacks on scientific funding.
Last week, the Australian Academy of Science called for the prime minister to convene an emergency meeting of the National Science and Technology council to “comprehensively assess the extent of Australia’s exposure to US R&D investment” and develop “risk mitigation strategies”.
Speaking to the ABC on Monday, the education minister, Jason Clare, was asked whether the Trump administration’s questionnaires constituted foreign interference, as the National Tertiary Education Union has argued.
“No, I don’t think it is,” he replied. “This is that US funded research, US universities working with Australian universities. Ultimately, it’s up to the US about what research it wants to fund.”
Clare said the education department was “starting to get more information” about the research cuts, which he said emerged from a review the US government had initiated into foreign aid.
“Research has been caught in that,” he said. “The Australian embassy in Washington is working with US departments to get a better understanding of this.
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“We expect that the outcomes of that review that the US has initiated will be clearer in the second half of April.”
Asked if the Australian government would consider filling the funding gaps if they arose, Clare said it wasn’t “practical” to underwrite foreign research.
The chief executive of Universities Australia, Luke Sheehy, told the ABC on Tuesday it was “really alarming” that Australia’s largest research funder, equivalent to around $600m a year, was reacting this way.
“The United States doesn’t gift Australia this money. It is seeking our expertise, and I’m really concerned that after decades of collaboration, all of this could be put at risk,” he said.
“The new administration … are clear that they want to have … an alignment with their worldview and whether or not that $600m of funding will be consistent with that.”
President of the Australian Academy of Science, Prof Chennupati Jagadish, said the US had become an “unpredictable” partner, with threats emerging to Australia’s strategic R&D capability “every day”.
“Taking a wait-and-see approach to the management of Australia’s national strategic [research and development] capability is dangerous and the consequences of inaction are profound,” he said.
“We do know that CSIRO is part of a larger R&D system that Australians rely on to … give us the best chance of staying safe in a technologically advanced world.”
