CSIRO (www.csiro.au), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, is Australia's national science agency. It was established in 1926. CSIRO operations span sevral areas like energy, the environment, information technology, health, mining, manufacturing,
agriculture, and natural resources. CSIRO ranks in the top one per cent of world scientific institutions in 13 out of 22 research fields, producing over 6,000 scientific publications in 2004 and holding over 3,900 granted or pending patents. CSIRO hosts three major National Research Facilities (the Australian Animal Health Laboratory, the Australia Telescope, and the Oceanographic Research Vessel Southern Surveyor) and manages 11 national reference collections. As at June 2005, CSIRO has 6,576 staff located across 57 sites throughout Australia and overseas, 61 per cent hold university degrees, including more than 2,000 doctorates and 470 masters. A total of 700 postgraduate research students were supervised in 2005–06. The annual budget exceeds AUS$940 million.