suddenly due to a disagreement with the NICTA Board) left NICTA at the end of May 2015 in the hope that the merger with CSIRO would be completed by the end of June 2015. As of August 2015, the merger had not been finalized and Professor Robert (Bob) Williamson (who also headed NICTA's Machine Learning Research Group) was acting and terminal CEO. NICTA formally merged with CSIRO to form a new entity called CSIRO's Data61 on 28 August 2015. Mr Adrian Turner was appointed to head the merged unit. He reported to a Deputy Chief Executive of CSIRO and had the positional equivalence of a CSIRO Flagship Director. Organisation NICTA research was focused in five scale Research Groups: Software Systems Mobile Systems Machine Learning Computer Vision Optimisation NICTA focused on potential economic opportunities that related to the use of information and communication technology. NICTA was primarily funded by government and engaged in additional industry partnerships to augment its base funding. These included start-up corporations or other Australian government funds. Four NICTA business teams were responsible for determining potential commercial or economic outcomes in the following domains for ICT: Broadband and the digital economy Infrastructure, transport and logistics Security Environment Also, the Engineering and Technology Development team helps to productize research outcomes. Locations NICTA had over 700 people (half of whom were graduate students) spread across four cities in Australia at its peak in 2012. This was drastically reduced as first the Victoria state government and then the Federal Government defunded it. Australian Technology Park Laboratory and Headquarters, Sydney Neville Roach Research Laboratory, Kensington, Sydney Canberra Research Laboratory Victoria Research Laboratory Queensland Research Laboratory The Neville Roach Laboratory was moved from its standalone location onto the University of New South Wales main campus in July 2015 as a cost saving measure. In addition, NICTA collaborated with many Australian universities and research organisations, and had smaller numbers of staff on various non-partner (and non-member) university campuses around the country. Funding NICTA was primarily funded by the Australian Government as represented by the Department of Communications and the Australian Research Council. NICTA also received funding from industry and several state governments, and was supported by its member and partner universities. References External links Organizations established in 2002 2002 establishments in Australia Research institutes in Australia Information technology research institutes Technology companies of Australia Organisations based in Sydney