The chief executive of the CSIRO has defended the decision to cut hundreds of jobs, arguing the organisation needs to alter its priorities to remain relevant.

Yesterday, Australia's peak science agency said it had reached a "critical inflection point" and would need to cut up to 350 jobs.

Those jobs are in addition to more than 800 positions that have already been slashed from the organisation in the past 18 months.

Federal Science Minister Tim Ayres said the cuts were aimed at refocusing the efforts of the CSIRO towards research priorities, such as critical minerals, iron and steel production in Australia.

Today, the CSIRO's chief executive said the cuts were being influenced by two main factors.

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"The first is we're looking at our science

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