[gary]

In an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald, Marcus Strom reports
on internal CSIRO documents dated 6 May 2016 that outline in the face
of impending cuts the possibility of having to stop operations
at the Australian Telescope Compact Array at Narrabri and the Parkes
Radiotelescope.

Originally Posted by Marcus Strom, Sydney Morning Herald

A leaked management briefing note shows that the iconic Dish could even stop operating if a shortfall of $4 million cannot be made up through external funding sources.

CSIRO's acting director of astronomy and space science, Douglas Bock, said: "CSIRO has no plans to cease operations at any of our astronomy facilities or reduce appropriations to astronomy research."

Dr Bock also said: "CSIRO has not received any formal notification from AAL [Astronomy Australia Limited] of any changes to their future funding of astronomy in Australia."

However, in an email to CSIRO astronomy staff dated May 6, Dr Bock said: "A short time ago Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL) released its draft budget for FY16-17."

He told CSIRO staff: "Based on the AAL recommendation and without additional resources we expect there would be significant changes to how we operate from July 2017."

A briefing note from CSIRO also dated May 6 and seen by Fairfax Media says that if the additional resources are not possible, then "potential savings for [financial year] 17/18 and beyond [include]:
•Stop operating ATCA [the Australian Telescope Compact Array at Narrabri]
•Stop operating Parkes, but substantial contribution from Breakthrough [the search for extraterrestrial life announced by Stephen Hawking last year]
•Reduce engineering program – fully funded external work only

The note also says that redundancies as soon as next financial year cannot be ruled out.

Originally Posted by Marcus Strom, Sydney Morning Herald

CSIRO had expected to continue to receive $4 million a year in funding for its astronomy division, however, according to the leaked document, that will reduce to $3.1 million in 2016/17 and the "proposed allocation for 17/18 and beyond is zero".

The facility at Parkes costs about $4.1 million a year and ATCA at Narrabri costs about $5.8 million. The overall budget for CSIRO's telescope program is about $20 million a year.

In his letter to CSIRO astronomy staff, Dr Bock said: "AAL funding represents a significant fraction of the CASS/ATNF budget and so we will need to make changes to accommodate this."

Article here -
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci...03-gpaqc1.html