eResearch Newsletter August 2021

Dear <<First Name>>, here is the National eResearch Newsletter.

National eResearch Newsletter - August 2021

Message from AeRO:

As many of you will be aware, this is National Science Week (www.scienceweek.net.au). Despite lockdowns in many areas, activities are still going ahead in person where possible, and online if not. I hope you can attend at least one and support the community.

As with any organisation that organises events these days, AeRO is experiencing our own challenges. However, planning for our Forum (Sept 14 - online) and eResearch Conference (online for the conference, in-person social events) is well underway, and we hope to see you at one or other of these.

And don’t forget, AeRO’s grant program for Early Career Researchers closes soon: https://aero.edu.au/grants/.

Phil Gurney, Interim CEO, AeRO.

CONTENTS:
* AeRO/Google Cloud Hero Training: 17-Aug.
* Virtual Tour: Meet Magnus for the Last Time: 17-Aug.
* Data Management Plans Interest Group: 19-Aug.
* CloudStor Clinics: start 23-Aug.
* Nextflow for Data Intensive Pipelines: 24-Aug.
* Tech Talk 7: Container Orchestration Experiences: 26-Aug.
* Persistent Identifiers for Research: 26-Aug.
* eResearch Australasia Call for Workshops: closes 27-Aug.
* Research Data Alliance Information Session: 31-Aug.
* HPC and Data in Materials Course: 1-Sep.
* AARNet Researcher Talks Winter Series: 2-Sep.
* SeptembRSE Worldwide: 6-Sep.
* eResearch Australasia Submission Deadlines: 10-Sep.
* eResearch Australasia Earlybird Registration closes: 10-Sep.
* AeRO National Forum 2021: 14-Sep.
* RDA Virtual Plenary 18: Posters close 15-Sep.
* Threatened Species Index has Moved to TERN.
* ARDC Nectar Research Cloud Doubles Capacity.
* Research Software to Get a FAIR Go.
* ARDC Skills: National Digital Research Skills Agenda.
* Call for US National Research Cloud to Emulate Australia.
* New High-Memory Computers and Large Genomes.
* NCI Training Calendar.
* Data Intelligence Issue on Metadata: by 31-Oct.
* EcoCommons Australia Coming.
* A Look Back at Raijin.

AeRO/Google Cloud Hero Training: 17-Aug

You're invited to join the free AeRO/Google Cloud Hero game-based training event tomorrow, Tuesday 17th August (1-4PM AEST/3-6PM NZST). Designed for researchers trying out Cloud for the first time, many of the attendees will be researchers from Australian and New Zealand universities applying for the AeRO Cloud Grants Program (https://aero.edu.au/grants/). We’ve enough spare spaces for others to join the game-based challenge and learn more about how to use the cloud for research in a hands-on environment. Deploy your very first virtual machine in the Google Cloud, and start the journey for a Google Cloud Skills Badge.

Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNeifK2QmdsalvFeXeX_WBs2NY8C1jsxq8F1gbxbkQ27WNEg/viewform.

Virtual Tour: Meet Magnus for the Last Time: 17-Aug

Join the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre as we take you on a live tour of the facility – your last opportunity to meet the Magnus Supercomputer, before it is replaced by Setonix, a supercomputer 30x more powerful.

9:00am - 10:00am, 17 August 2021.

The tour will be live-streamed on Pawsey’s facebook page at www.facebook.com/pawseycentre.

Please invite your friends and family for this all-ages event on Tuesday 17 August, 9am AWST / 11am AEST and celebrate National Science Week with us. The live stream will take place on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pawseycentre.

Data Management Plans Interest Group: 19-Aug

This Interest Group, run by ARDC, is for people interested in discussing, building and improving Data Management Plans (DMPs) - best practice and technical tools.

The next meeting will feature Paola Petrelli (CLEX) and Katie Hannan (CSIRO), talking about DMPs and workflows that support researchers.

When: 19 August, 1pm (AEST)

See: https://sites.google.com/ardc.edu.au/dmp-interest-group/join-the-group?authuser=0.

CloudStor Clinics: start 23-Aug

AARNet is introducing fortnightly CloudStor Clinics to empower researchers and CloudStor users, catering for absolute beginners through to advanced users from all areas of research. Participants can drop in any time to discuss problems they are trying to solve or issues they would like to address relating to CloudStor. AARNet staff from the eResearch, CloudStor and Service Desk teams will be available to share knowledge and help users make the most of the CloudStor service.

23 Aug-2021 (4pm AEST), 6-Sep (1pm), 20-Sep (4pm), 4-Oct (1pm).

Find out more and register: https://www.aarnet.edu.au/events/cloudstor-clinics.

Introduction to Nextflow for Data Intensive Pipelines: 24-Aug

Nextflow is a framework that enables you to run the same workflow locally using Docker, or on HPC using Slurm and Singularity. Nextflow can be used in any data intensive research domain, including bioinformatics, space sciences, radio astronomy, oceanography, geological sciences, and more. In this session, we’ll present a real use case in planetary science.

10-11am AWST, 24-Aug-21, online and in-person.

This event will provide HPC users (and others!) with an overview on how to develop new and redevelop existing workflows using industry accepted best practices, including code modularity and reuse, rapid prototyping and deployment, and platform independence.

More info: https://pawsey.org.au/event/introduction-to-nextflow-for-data-intensive-pipelines/.

Tech Talk 7: Container Orchestration Experiences: 26-Aug

Setting up a High-Availability Kubernetes cluster from scratch is “hard”, hence the popularity of public cloud providers, that do all the hard lifting for you. In this talk, Gordon German will present on AusSRC experiences setting up production-grade Kubernetes on several private and academic cloud facilities, including pitfalls and learning curves and what they would do differently.

When: Thursday, 26 August 2021, 2:00pm-3:00pm AEST.

Speaker: Gordon German, Software Research Engineer, CSIRO AusSRC

For more information and to sign up: https://sites.google.com/ardc.edu.au/techtalk2020.

Note that Talk 8 will be on 3 September, at 2.00pm AEST, on Scalable Data Processing on Nectar using Apache Airflow.

Persistent Identifiers for Research - Australian and International Perspectives: 26-Aug

In this webinar, research data management specialist Siobhann McCafferty from the Australian Research Data Commons will explore metadata and persistent identifiers.

This session (run by Microscopy Australia & ARDC) will introduce what a persistent identifier is, what they can do, why they’re important; and provide information about some key PIDs in both the National and International research environment. We will also look in particular at Orcid for people, DOI for data, publications and software, RAiD for projects, IGSN for physical samples and Handle for working data.

When: 26 August, 2pm (AEST)

More information and register at: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsc-2ppzwiGdKjXYBL9MrQ6HhpbukdBGQq. See also https://micro.org.au/news-events/events/.

eResearch Australasia Call for Workshops: closes 27-Aug

The Conference is now pleased to invite expressions of interests from those who would like to host an eResearch Australasia Post Conference Workshop.

It is anticipated workshops will take place the week of 18 – 22 October, immediately following the main conference week (11 – 15 October), and will be delivered using the Conference online system (eg Zoom). As with the main conference, in order to minimise Zoom-fatigue, Workshops will be limited to 4 hours, and will be run in the window 11am to 3pm (AEDT).

This call closes on 27 August.

Go to: https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/2021-call-for-workshops/.

Research Data Alliance Information Session: 31-Aug

An RDA Information Session aimed at Understanding and Engaging with RDA Groups will be held online as follows:

31 Aug 2021, 07:30 to 08:00 UTC (17:30-18:00 AEST, 17:00-17:30 ACST, 15:30-16:00 AWST).

More information and registration: https://rd-alliance.org/understanding-and-engaging-rda-groups.

HPC and Data in Materials Design and Discovery Graduate Course: 1-Sep

A 12-week online, collaboratively taught course by prominent academics/scientists from 14 institutions for Australian graduate students and researchers. The syllabus aims to support graduate students and ECRs working in the space between HPC/Big Data and computational materials science. Two 1-hr sessions each week encompassing altogether 16 topical lectures and 8 hands-on tutorials. The course is facilitated by Intersect, NCI and leading academics from 5 major universities. Over 250 tickets have been released so far.

Duration: 1st Sep to 26th Nov 2021

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/hpc-and-data-in-materials-design-and-discovery-a-collaborative-course-registration-163159684007.

AARNet Researcher Talks Winter Series: 2-Sep

In this monthly Series, researchers across different domains will showcase how they are using AARNet infrastructure to accelerate their research.

In Researcher Talk #4 Thursday 2 September 1pm-2pm (via Zoom) Steven Morgan, Bioinformatician and Academic specialist, Melbourne Bioinformatics and The University of Melbourne, will discuss how CloudStor SWAN has been integrated into the teaching of a masters-level subject at The University of Melbourne. Steven will share the lessons learned from the semester, the advantages of using the service in a teaching environment, and provide some tips for others who may want to enhance their teaching.

Find out more and register: https://www.aarnet.edu.au/events/aarnet-researcher-talks-2021-winter-series.

SeptembRSE Worldwide: 6-Sep

The Society of RSE is inviting everyone to join a dedicated "SeptembRSE Worldwide" session, along with the other events that are scheduled for SeptembRSE.

If you have colleagues in countries without an RSE chapter (eg, most of south-east Asia), please put them in touch with worldwide@society-rse.org; the Society of RSE is keen to raise awareness about RSEs and help establish new RSE chapters across the globe.

More information, including a draft program, and registration (now open) at: https://septembrse.society-rse.org/.

eResearch Australasia Submission Deadlines: 10-Sep

If you missed the submission deadline (6-Aug-21) for the eResearch Australasia conference, but you've got an awesome presentation, lightning talk or BoF you’d really like to submit - please email mail@conferencedesign.com.au (we can make no promises at this stage).

Note that the call for Posters will remain open until 10-Sep-21 – go to https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/2021-abstract-submission/.

And the call for Workshops will remain open until 27-Aug-21 – go to https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/2021-call-for-workshops/.

For more information: https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/ (click on the 3 bars at top-R of page for sub-pages).

eResearch Australasia Earlybird Registration closes: 10-Sep

Please be reminded that the Earlybird Registration for eRA2021, to be held online and locally, from 11 to 15-Oct-21, closes on 10-Sep-21. See https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/registration/.

Note that Registration covers attendance at the formal parts of the Conference, via use of its comprehensive online capability, as well as attendance at local “socialising” events to be held in several cities around Australia. For details of these online capabilities, see https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/online-event-faqs/.

We are also still happy to receive sponsorship and exhibitor proposals – see https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/2021-sponsor-exhibitor-prospectus/.

AeRO National Forum 2021: 14-Sep

SAVE THE DATE! The 11th AeRO National Forum 2021 – Minding the Gaps – will be held as a virtual event on 14 Sep, from 10-2pm AEST.

Where will eResearch be in 5 years? What changes are needed? What gaps need to be filled?

2021 is a Roadmap year: the Australian Government, through its Department of Education, Skills and Employment, has commenced its 5-yearly review of the National Research Infrastructure Roadmap. So this Forum affords a key opportunity for the sector to come together and provide feedback in the NRIR planning process.

For more information (updated from time to time) go to: https://aero.edu.au/forum-2021/.

Research Data Alliance Virtual Plenary 18: Posters close 15-Sep

The RDA Plenary #18 will take place as a Virtual Conference from 3-18 November 2021.

The Call for Posters is now open until 15 September 2021.

Visit https://www.rd-alliance.org/rdas-18th-plenary-call-posters for more information and to submit a poster abstract.

Threatened Species Index has Moved to TERN

The Australian government’s National Environmental Science Program (NESP) funding for the Threatened Species Recovery Hub finished in June this year. However, the future of one of its achievements, the Threatened Species Index (TSX), has been secured with TERN becoming the new custodian of the index project.

See https://www.tern.org.au/threatened-species-index-has-moved-to-tern/.

ARDC Nectar Research Cloud Doubles Capacity

The $8 million upgrade of the ARDC Nectar National Research Cloud was completed this month with the final 2 nodes, QCIF and Intersect, coming online. Australian researchers now have double the amount of cloud computing power for research analysis and data storage.

For more information, see: https://ardc.edu.au/news/ardc-nectar-research-cloud-doubles-national-capacity-for-australian-researchers/.

Research Software to Get a FAIR Go

New FAIR principles for research software are set to bolster research integrity and usher in welcome changes in scholarly practices, as they have for research data in recent years. The ARDC’s draft Research Software Agenda for Australia incorporates the principles with the aim to make research software a 1st-class research output.

For more information: https://ardc.edu.au/news/research-software-to-get-a-fair-go/.

ARDC Skills: Leading the National Digital Research Skills Agenda

The ARDC's skilled workforce team is leading the digital research skills agenda in Australia.

Meet the team and find out more about the upcoming ARDC Digital Research Skills Summit (13-Oct-21) at: https://ardc.edu.au/news/ardc-skills-leading-national-digital-research-skills-agenda/.

Call for US National Research Cloud to Emulate Australia

ARDC CEO, Rosie Hicks, has been quoted in Financial Times on the call for a National Research Cloud in the US. The Financial Times says the US can look to Australia, where the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) Nectar Research Cloud has provided Australian researchers with on-demand computing infrastructure and software since 2012.

US academics are calling to create a National Research Cloud to harness the power of cloud computing, further develop artificial intelligence, and to avoid falling behind a fast-moving tech industry.

See more at: https://ardc.edu.au/news/us-academics-call-for-national-research-cloud-financial-times/.

New High-Memory Computers Fast-Track Insights into Large Genomes

Scientists can now process large datasets and computationally-intensive analyses with ease on Galaxy Australia thanks to the new large memory servers on the ARDC Nectar Research Cloud.

See more at: https://www.biocommons.org.au/news/galaxy-aus-uom-test.

NCI Training Calendar

NCI is providing training and support to the user community through webinars and other events. Training courses offered include Introduction to Gadi, Machine Learning Showcases, technical talks from leading computational scientists and more.

A full list of upcoming courses can be found on the NCI Opus portal at https://opus.nci.org.au/display/Help/NCI+Training+and+Educational+Events.

Data Intelligence Issue on Metadata: by 31-Oct

Data Intelligence, an MIT Press Direct open access journal, seeks contributions for a special issue on Metadata as Data Intelligence.

Submission deadline: October 31, 2021

Guest editors: Jane Greenberg & Minfang Wu

Click here to read the full call for papers: https://direct.mit.edu/dint/pages/data_intelligence_call_for_papers_2021.

EcoCommons Australia Coming

BCCVL (https://bccvl.org.au/), ecocloud (https://ecocloud.org.au/) and ecoEd (http://ecoed.org.au/) are getting a huge upgrade and will be migrating to our new EcoCommons Australia platform in November 2022.

Sign up for our newsletter to keep up with what is being developed at EcoCommons, to get ecological modelling tips, and for links to related scientific publications.

For more information: https://comms.ecocommons.org.au/v/99641/1004677/email.html?k=lhbDkULp_RVEq0z4cJpK_TAV623wRxkiJ_VfCHG7gXc.

A Look Back at Raijin

In 2013, Raijin became Australia’s first petaflop supercomputer, a milestone that heralded new possibilities for Australian computational research. This story, first published in NCI's 2019-2020 Annual Report, was republished this month for the eighth anniversary of Raijin's official launch.

Read the whole Raijin story on the NCI website at https://nci.org.au/research/research-highlights/a-look-back-raijin.

Contributions

This newsletter is based on contributions from members of the eResearch community, and draws on news articles and newsletters published across the sector. The Newsletter is published around the 16th of each month. Please send all contributions (max. 100 words + link + image) or pointers to any other relevant articles or newsletters to editor@aero.edu.au.
Newsletter archives are available at http://aero.edu.au/newsletters/.
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Thanks, Alex Reid, AeRO Newsletter Editor.

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