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Abstract

In late 2007, a document titled “Towards the Australian Data Commons“ was released by the Australian National Data Service (ANDS) Technical Working Group proposing that Australia take systematic approach to the retention, management and access to research data. This vision forms one of the founding documents of the now established Australian National Data Service.

Taking a consumer’s perspective on the ANDS initiative, this presentation will look at how initiatives such as ANDS will facilitate changes to our national research information infrastructure. It will also look beyond the scope of the ANDS initiative and discuss how this same information infrastructure could be used to transform not only the way we manage research data, but transform the way the public, media, industry, and indeed other researchers, will be able to discover and engage with ongoing research activities.

The presentation will also cover the progress of related international initiatives, including the efforts of the European Current Research Information System (euroCRIS) to develop a common European research information infrastructure, and the efforts of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to raise the profile of funded research activities.

About the speaker

Between 2001 and 2006, Simon worked on the University of Melbourne’s ERP implementation as a technical and business analyst across Student, Finance, HR, and Research Management systems. He is responsible for designing and implementing the University of Melbourne’s Find an Expert portal, which constructs a research profile page for every researcher in the university based on information collected in the university’s corporate systems such as publications, grants, contact details and research classifications. In 2007, Simon was awarded the University of Melbourne’s Bronwyn Adams Trust award for professional staff. This award sponsored a visit to the National Science Foundation to investigate how they manage value and communicate information about the research projects they fund. Simon now works in the University’s eScholarship Research Centre, where along with supporting the University’s eResearch agenda, and working with national initiatives such as ASPR and Link Affiliates, he finds time to obsess about how research administration could be transformed on eResearch infrastructure.