Australia's chief scientist Alan Finkel admits "a lot of effort" is needed to maintain the nation's climate research capacity following a restructure at the CSIRO.  However, as long as the science body honours a commitment to translate programs and systems for other research bodies, he's optimistic Australia's capability won't suffer.  Dr Finkel is holding one-on-one discussions with the nation's key researchers after the CSIRO revealed about 350 jobs would go in a restructure targeted mainly at reducing climate research.  He told a parliamentary committee in February his main priority was the continuation of data collection, warning gaps cannot be fixed retrospectively.  On Wednesday, he said the key players were "enthusiastically participating" in discussions on how to deal with the changes, while noting the restructure would allow the CSIRO to do "really important things".  The CSIRO had said it would continue to create translational systems to transfer some of its work to other bodies, Dr Finkel said.  "If we rely on that and the goodwill of these discussions then I'm optimistic that we can continue to maintain our capacity," he told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.  "But it won't happen without a lot of effort, these are serious issues."  The CSIRO argues its focus should shift away from climate change research and data collection, now the question of global warming has been settled.  The overall staff head count is expected to return to current levels within two years, however jobs would be in new areas.  The restructure prompted thousands of scientists to pen an open letter against the "devastating cuts" to the "vibrant and world-leading" research.  The Bureau of Meteorology has warned there could be gaps in key collaborative climate projects with the CSIRO if the science body was to pull out.  Dr Finkel also urged investment in renewable energy storage technology, saying while the cost of wind and solar was competitive, the whole system was not.  He believes investing in storage is the "moral imperative of our age".  "We have a long long way to go on storage and without solar and wind won't deliver what we want," he said.
Australia's chief scientist is optimistic the nation can maintain its climate research capability in the face of CSIRO cuts with 'a lot of effort'.