View the presentation slides  (1 Mb)

Abstract

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is faced with a rapidly growing research agenda built upon a strategic research capacity-building program. This presentation will outline the results of a project that has recently investigated QUT’s research support requirements and which has developed a model for the support of eResearch across the university.

QUT’s research building strategy has produced growth at the faculty level and within its research institutes. This increased research activity is pushing the need for university-wide eResearch platforms capable of providing infrastructure and support in areas such as collaboration, data, networking, authentication and authorisation, workflows and the grid.

One of the driving forces behind the investigation is data-centric nature of modern research. It is now critical that researchers have access to supported infrastructure that allows the collection, analysis, aggregation and sharing of large data volumes for exploration and mining in order to gain new insights and to generate new knowledge. However, recent surveys into current research data management practices by the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR) and by QUT itself, has revealed serious shortcomings in areas such as research data management, especially its long term maintenance for reuse and authoritative evidence of research findings. While these internal university pressures are building, at the same time there are external pressures that are magnifying them. For example, recent compliance guidelines from bodies such as the ARC, and NHMRC and Universities Australia indicate that institutions need to provide facilities for the safe and secure storage of research data along with a surrounding set of policies, on its retention, ownership and accessibility. The newly formed Australian National Data Service (ANDS) is developing strategies and guidelines for research data management and research institutions are a central focus, responsible for managing and storing institutional data on platforms that can be federated nationally and internationally for wider use.

For some time QUT has recognised the importance of eResearch and has been active in a number of related areas: ePrints to digitally publish research papers, grid computing portals and workflows, institutional-wide provisioning and authentication systems, and legal protocols for copyright management. QUT also has two widely recognised centres focused on fundamental research into eResearch itself: The OAK LAW project (Open Access to Knowledge) which focuses upon legal issues relating eResearch and the Microsoft QUT eResearch Centre whose goal is to accelerate scientific research discovery, through new smart software. In order to better harness all of these resources and improve research outcomes, the university recently established a project to investigate how it might better organise the support of eResearch.

This presentation will discuss the project outcomes, which include a flexible and sustainable eResearch support service model addressing short and longer term research needs, identification of resource requirements required to establish and sustain the service, and the development of research data management policies and implementation plans.

About the speakers

Carolyn Young is the Associate Director, Library Services (Information Resources) at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Carolyn is responsible for the Library’s information resources management including electronic and print acquisitions, electronic reserve collection, QUT ePrint database and digital theses database. She is also responsible for leadership of the Library’s acquisitions and cataloguing operations. In addition, she has a Library wide portfolio to coordinate Library resources and services in support of research at QUT. In this role, she supervises the eResearch Access Coordinator and the IHBI Information Manager positions – both innovative positions directly supporting research. She is a member of the University’s eResearch Working Party. In 2007, Carolyn prepared a Research Support Strategic Plan 2007-2009 for the Division. This led to a successful project proposal to scope a Divisional eResearch Support Service focussing on research data management. She is currently seconded to lead this project in collaboration with Dr Joe Young, Manager of High Performance Computing. She is the Chair of the newly formed Divisional Research Support Committee. She is also Chief Investigator on a current ARC LIEF Grant for Austlit, creating a digitised collection of Australian children’s literature and critical works as part of the Austlit database. Carolyn is leading a project to digitise the QUT Library’s sugar research industry collection as part of the Carnegie Mellon University led Universal Digital Library Million Book Collection. On completing her Arts degree and formal library qualifications, Carolyn worked in the libraries of the University of Queensland, University of Melbourne, North Brisbane College of Advanced Education and Queensland Institute of Technology (later merged with the Brisbane College of Advanced Education to form QUT). At QUT, she became Technical Services Librarian in 1987 and Associate Director Library Services (Information Resources) from 1991. She is a member of the Library Executive and deputises for the Director of Library Services.

Joseph Young has worked in the IT industry for more than 25 years and for the past sixteen years he has managed the supercomputing and scientific data visualisation group at QUT. He has been involved in national (formerly APAC and more recently NCRIS) and state supercomputing and eResearch organisations (formerly QPSF and now QCIF). His current research projects involve the integration of ground water based data (both simulated and collected field data) and their subsequent processing and visualisation to aid water management decision-making. This work, like many of today’s research projects, is data intensive. This has led to his professional interest in the management of research data and the wider topic of eResearch support.