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Abstract

A key enabler for e-Research in Australia is to give researchers seamless access to resources, including each other. The resources are distributed in various areas of Australia and overseas. These resources include digital data repositories, scientific facilities, instruments and sensors, computational facilities, and high-speed telecommunications networks. Strategic positioning to facilitate use of these capabilities for research is necessary to ensure that the investment of capital and human resources is undertaken in an effective and evolutionary manner. This positioning requires integrated strategies for:

• the ‘e-Research fabric’ (the physical resources that link, or are linked to enable, e-Research activities);
  
  
• middleware (the computer software that links the ICT resources and users);
  
  
• the regime for access to data, including data collection and generation; data storage and the physical management of stored data; the evolution of standards to enable data to be used and interpreted
  
  
• structures for engagement and consensus building;
  
  
• programmes for research, development and deployment of ICT solutions for e-Research;
  
  
• a national framework for access, authentication and authorisation;
  
  
• programmes for skills acquisition.

The structure of funding processes, the strategic direction of investments and the continual review of strategic posture are the key elements – rather than the continuing investment in past strategies on the upgrading of existing investments – that will determine Australia’s success in eResearch.

 

About the speaker

Dr Sargent is a Director of M.A.Sargent & Associates, providing strategic corporate consulting services to industry, with a particular focus on the information technology, energy, environment and utilities sectors. Prior to this he was Chief Executive of Transfield Energy Group, and before that was Chief Executive Officer of ACTEW Corporation from November 1991. Dr Sargent has 45 years experience in the utility industry in Australia, USA and Canada.

Dr Sargent is Chair of the eResearch Coordinating Committee and of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Committee. He is a Director of the National Electricity Market Management Company and of National ICT Australia. He is Deputy Chairman of epicorp Ltd, a high technology seed fund and incubator. He is an Adjunct Professor of the University of Technology Sydney and of the University of Queensland.

He has a degree in electrical engineering and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland.

He is active in professional and community matters. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Academician of the International Academy for Quality, and was President of The Institution of Engineers Australia in 1990.

In recognition of his service to engineering he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1993 and was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2003.