Staff at Australia's national science agency are warning a funding boost worth hundreds of million of dollars will not keep pace with the cost of research.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced a $233 million commitment to the CSIRO on Wednesday as part of the mid-year budget update.
The funding will be over the next two financial years to maintain research and innovation, and will be on top of the CSIRO's existing budget of almost $1 billion a year.
While the Community and Public Sector Union said the extra money was "desperately needed", it would not address long-term funding issues and aggressive cuts.
In November, the CSIRO said up to 350 research positions were set to go in the latest round of redundancies as the "cost of doing science has gone up".
Almost half of those jobs were to come from the organisation's environmental research unit that includes climate adaption science.
Pressed on the job losses, Dr Chalmers said no cuts to the science agency would happen on Labor's watch, but didn't provide clarity on the future of those roles.
"The costs have escalated ... and so the CSIRO has to make decisions about how they manage their resources," he told reporters in Canberra.
"From the government's point of view, we've been increasing their resourcing, $45 million extra last time, $233 million extra this time and that's because we believe in the crucial role that science broadly and the CSIRO plays in the future of our economy."
The union's CSIRO section secretary Susan Tonks said despite the boost, funding has gone backwards as a percentage of economic output.
"Unfortunately, CSIRO scientists across the country are still heading into Christmas not knowing if their job and research will be next to go under the announced cuts, but this investment must save jobs," she said.
"CSIRO management must do the right thing with this funding and ensure further job cuts are abandoned."
Ms Tonks pointed to the CSIRO's achievements such as inventing wi-fi.
When the cuts were announced, the organisation said particular areas of science would be no longer be prioritised in order to keep itself sustainable.
The cuts sparked condemnation, with more than 20,000 people signing independent senator David Pocock's petition to urgently increase the CSIRO's funding to rebuild the nation's science capability.
"We need to get the CSIRO into a position where it can rule out further job cuts," he said.
"Now is a time for Australia to be training, attracting and retaining the best scientific minds to deal with our biggest challenges and ensuring they have the research infrastructure to enable this work."
The government's commitment will enable the CSIRO to expand their work in areas including advanced technologies such as AI, critical minerals, climate change adaption and mitigating biosecurity threats.
