Growing spare body parts and harnessing data-driven exploration to mine deep earth minerals is all part of a new vision for the CSIRO.
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The organisation has invested $17 million to back 'challenging and riskier science' in a bid to get ahead of accelerating global disruption.
Dubbed "the future science platforms" the organisation has outlined six priority areas it believes will expand its core capabilities and reinvent industries from health to agriculture, mining, manufacturing and more.
Akin to a start-up model, CSIRO hopes to grow the $17 million seed capital to $52 million by 2020 by developing underpinning technologies with the potential to generate significant revenue.
CSIRO's executive manager, Science Impact and Policy, Tom McGinness, said the new vision enabled researchers to develop scientific and engineering approaches that aligned with challenges and opportunities faced by Australia and the wider world.
"Our organisation is based on innovating, creating and being smart, and we need to keep generating ideas, developing new capabilities and leading in areas where we think it makes sense to do so," he said.
Deep Earth Imaging, the first of six platform areas, harnesses data to more precisely map and discover minerals.
The second, Active Integrated Matter, aims to create solutions for industry through robotics, sensors and artificial intelligence.
Digiscape, the third, focuses on improving decision making through data visualisation, sensors and customised artificial intelligence.
Tailoring crops to match future soil and weather conditions, developing technology to detect biosecurity threats or manage ecosystem health falls under the umbrella of the fourth platform, Environomics.
The fifth relates to health. Probing Biosystems focuses on creating tools for real time health monitoring and create medical inventions to prevent recurring disease.
The sixth, Synthetic Biology, aims to build systems and machines to create personalised 'spare parts' for our bodies, synthetic vaccines and other biological devices.
CSIRO Chief Executive, Dr Larry Marshall, said making science of the future happen now was crucial.
The six sections will collaborate across scientific disciplines within CSIRO and with research partners such as universities, Cooperative Research Centres, industry and specialist organisations.
