The increased engagement of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) with Australian industry from the early 1980s to the late 1990s marks it as an unusual era for CSIRO. The reasons lie in CSIRO’s response to the economic and political background of the time and to government moves to reinvigorate the industrial sector. By the end of the century, external pressures for industry engagement had receded as macroeconomic conditions improved and Australian industry diversified. The engagement can be seen in the growth of direct contacts between CSIRO and research users and Australian companies that occurred across the organisation. This paper analyses CSIRO’s technology transfer policies and practices within an economic and political context and addresses two questions: why did the organisation’s approach to technology transfer change and how? We look at three mini-eras in the 1980s and 1990s and draw out major changes in technology transfer during these two decades.

中文翻译：

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与澳大利亚工业合作：20 世纪后期的 CSIRO

从 1980 年代初到 1990 年代后期，英联邦科学与工业研究组织 (CSIRO) 与澳大利亚工业界的接触不断增加，这标志着 CSIRO 进入了一个不寻常的时代。原因在于 CSIRO 对当时的经济和政治背景以及政府重振工业部门的举措的反应。到本世纪末，随着宏观经济状况的改善和澳大利亚工业多元化，行业参与的外部压力已经消退。这种参与可以从 CSIRO 与研究用户和澳大利亚公司之间的直接联系在整个组织中的增长中看出。本文分析了 CSIRO 在经济和政治背景下的技术转让政策和实践，并解决了两个问题：为什么组织的技术转让方法发生了变化以及如何变化？我们回顾了 1980 年代和 1990 年代的三个迷你时代，并得出了这两个十年间技术转让的重大变化。