Facilitators
Julie Watson (MoRST, New Zealand) and Nick Jones (The University of Auckland)
Abstract
Last year a group of eResearch representatives from both sides of the Tasman met to begin the process of building relationships and identifying connections to drive eResearch collaborations across the Tasman. Much has happened over the intervening year and there is strong demand for continuation of this birds of feather (BoF) session.
The aim of the session remains consistent, that is to build a shared view of the drivers for and issues in achieving collaboration between research groups in Australia and New Zealand, with focus on application level programmes and services as opposed to networks and network related services.
Experience from research programmes in Australia and New Zealand continue to inform discussions on opportunities for eResearch collaborations across the Tasman and the relationships that are needed to facilitate them.
These programmes would exploit the AARNet/KAREN networks and the grid and high-performance computing services provided by the National Computational Infrastructure, ARCS, and ANDS in Australia and BeSTGRID and major HPC centres in New Zealand.
During 2009 BestGRID community has been funded to strengthen existing and develop additional GRID middleware capabilities with a focus on geosciences and bioscience. Work is progressing within New Zealand’s geosciences and bioscience communities to enable scaling up of existing research and connection with established offshore communities.
The Trans-Tasman BoF is our forum to discuss how to support the transition from ‘making do’ within the boundaries to sharing resources and technologies across boundaries to tackle larger problems. We will use this session for generating ideas, strengthening relationships and identifying opportunities for education, outreach and training.
The organizers Julie Watson, eResearch Adviser, MoRST, and Nick Jones, Director, BeSTGRID, seek expressions of interest for attendance at this BoF. Please contact julie.watson@morst.govt.nz if you would like to contribute or attend.
About the presenters
Julie Watson spent 2006 to 2008 with the Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ) as Communities Manager. She was involved in the launch of the Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network (KAREN) in August 2006 with New Zealand universities, Crown research institutes and the National Library as core members. Julie then set about the task of developing communities for KAREN uptake across the research sector with the aid of a $5 million government fund for capability building. Her initial work focused on what KAREN was - introducing advanced networking technology to a community whose primary interests lay in their specific areas of research. Julie organised the first New Zealand eResearch conference in 2007, KAREN Communities for Collaboration, and the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) Conference in Queenstown in 2008. It became "slowly" apparent to Julie that eResearch was more than about the pipe so when the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) eResearch Advisor position came available in December 2008, Julie took the position to develop policy for a coordinated approach to eResearch in New Zealand. Julie has a background in science and arts - with the most significant influence on her career to date being LIFE.
Nick Jones is Co-Director eResearch in the Centre for eResearch at The University of Auckland based in NZ, and is the Director of the NZ national grid computing and eResearch infrastructure project BeSTGRID. Nick has managed and led a diverse portfolio of projects and infrastructures, including research contracts in grid computing, federated identity management, storage network design and simulation, eLearning and assessment systems development, among others.
Nick is on the advisory and governance boards of a range of research and infrastructure organisations, including the Centre of Methods and Policy Application in the Social Sciences at The University of Auckland, and the Advanced Video Collaboration Centre at The University of Canterbury.
Nick is a member of the Centre for Software Innovation at The University of Auckland. Nick mentors students and consults with industry on their technology strategies, with a particular focus being developing Technology Roadmapping skills and capabilities within fast growth IT companies.