Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is South Africa's central and premier scientific research and development organisation. It was established by an act of parliament in 1945 and is situated on its own campus in the city of Pretoria.

It is the largest research and development (R&D) organisation in Africa and accounts for about 10% of the entire African R&D budget. It has a staff of approximately 3,000 technical and scientific researchers, often working in multi-disciplinary teams.

The CSIR's main areas of research are:

• Built Environment.
• Defence, Peace, Safety and Security technologies.
• Food, biological and chemical technologies.
• Materials and manufacturing sciences.
• Natural Resources and Environment.

Institutes at the CSIR

• Meraka Institute

Research centres at the CSIR

• National Laser Centre

External links

• CSIR Website
• CSIR Research Space - provides access to some of the research outputs generated by CSIR scientists
• Defence Research and Development in South Africa - The Role of the CSIR
• Meraka Institute - The African Advanced Institute for Information and Communication Technology
• Transport research in the CSIR:
• Optronic Sensor Systems