eResearch Newsletter December 2021

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

National eResearch Newsletter - December 2021

Message from AeRO:

With 2021 nearly at a close, we take the time reflect on the important role of AeRO in supporting our members and the broader eResearch sector.

This year, AeRO has taken a clear leadership role within the sector, facilitating our 11th annual AeRO Forum which provided an opportunity for CEOs and senior staff to discuss important issues facing the sector. Record levels of attendance and sponsorship at the Australasian eResearch Conference demonstrated our on-going need to connect and collaborate with our peers to overcome common challenges. 2021 also saw our inaugural year of commercial collaboration with our successful (and oversubscribed) Google Grants Program. We were also delighted to continue our journey to champion diversity and inclusion as the lead organisation for the WHPC+ Australasian chapter.

We’ve continued to connect our community by facilitating events, sharing information via our active social media, publishing the National eResearch newsletter, as well as the on-going popularity of the AeRO Jobs Board.

On behalf of our Executive Committee, Members Council, and hard-working operational team, we want to thank you for your continued support. We’re excited about what’s in store for 2022, and look forward to welcoming new members, and facilitating a range of exciting collaborative activities in 2022. We wish you all enjoy a safe and well-deserved break to re-connect with family and friends over the holiday season.

Kind regards, Loretta Davis - AeRO Executive Officer.

CONTENTS:
* 2021 NRI Roadmap Draft: Comment by 22-Dec.
* Bioinformatics Training and Needs Survey: by 22-Dec.
* BioCommons Single Cell Omics Survey: by 4-Feb.
* eResearch NZ 2022 Moving Online - Registration Now Open!
* Data Science Week is back in 2022!
* UNSW Joins NCI as Major Collaborator.
* Research Data Management Framework.
* Delivering Data to Improve Reporting on Australia’s Environment.
* Verifying the Accuracy of Globally Important Space-Based Imagery.
* Research Software Policies Worldwide.
* Tour TERN’s Rainforest Monitoring SuperSite.
* Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation Newsletter.
* Chat in the Lounge with AAF.
* International Developments in Unique Identifiers for Samples.
* Appointment of New Pawsey Chair.
* ARDC Reflects on the Research Data Alliance Plenary 18.
* ARCOS Symposium Outcome.

2021 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap Draft: Comment by 22-Dec

The Exposure Draft of the NRIR has been published in full on the 2021 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap website, accompanied by a set of targeted questions for you to respond to online. The feedback you provide will be shared with the Expert Working Group and will guide the delivery of the final 2021 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap.

The Exposure Draft will be open for feedback until 5pm (AEDT) Wednesday, 22 December 2021.

See: https://thefridaycollective.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=18b4346e995a8acdec80ea71e&id=8aec11af8f&e=cd8f6ffd34.

Reminder: Bioinformatics Training and Needs Survey: by 22-Dec

Australian BioCommons and the National Bioinformatics Training Cooperative offers national training to uplift the skills of Australian biologists and bioinformaticians. We collaborate to ensure we offer the best training opportunities and it is important to hear what training the bioscience research community needs.

Please complete the national bioinformatics training needs survey before 22 Dec 2021, at https://forms.gle/1Y6d6RBfExMoYgGs7.

BioCommons Single Cell Omics Survey: by 4-Feb

The Australian BioCommons are focussing on Single Cell Omics and want to hear about your infrastructure needs – the datasets, tools, pipelines, standards, compute resources and any difficulties you have faced for single cell omics analysis.

You can get involved in the Single Cell Omics discussion by:

completing a 10 minute survey before 4th February 2022, and
joining us for an on-line video conference Wednesday 17th February 2022 12:00 pm (noon) AEDT where we will discuss the results of the survey, and explore ways that national coordination/consolidation could help to address the challenges (complete the survey to be invited).

Survey link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf8AAph-P8Hel0sq66DENiakbxnzIXdQayz1yCI-eidexTcOQ/viewform?usp=sf_link.

eResearch NZ 2022 Moving Online - Registration Now Open!

Following consultation with the community and deliberation within the Organising Committee, eResearch NZ 2022 is moving its programme online. The conference dates remain the same, 9-11 February 2022.

Registration is now open, and tertiary students can register for FREE! eResearch NZ 2022 has opportunities for skills training, professional development, and mentoring so please invite any tertiary students you think would be interested!

Read the latest event updates: https://mailchi.mp/nesi/ernz-2022-registration-live?e=8fd6e1df44.

Data Science Week is back in 2022!

Australia's #DataScienceWeek is back in 2022 and we're looking for YOUR amazing events to complete the week!

Focusing on the theme Data Science Every Day, this week aims to bring together a community of data scientists, technologist, educators, data science enthusiasts and more to raise awareness around data science, STEM, network and share ideas with like-minded peers.

Register your event here: www.datascienceweek.org.

UNSW Joins NCI as Major Collaborator.

NCI is proud to announce that UNSW Sydney has joined NCI’s Collaboration Agreement as a Major Collaborator. UNSW will join The Australian National University, the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO – Australia’s national science agency, and Geoscience Australia as NCI Major Collaborators, with representation on the NCI Advisory Board. Through becoming part of the strategic leadership of NCI, UNSW is demonstrating its commitment to computing and data pathways for Australian research to meet its potential.

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Infrastructure), Professor Grainne Moran, will join the NCI Advisory Board in December 2021.

See: https://nci.org.au/news-events/news/unsw-becomes-nci-major-collaborator-joins-nci-advisory-board.

Research Data Management Framework

The ARDC’s Institutional Underpinnings program has completed a draft research data management framework with 25 partner universities, with 90 experts informing the draft research data management framework for Australian universities.

See: https://ardc.edu.au/news/90-experts-inform-draft-research-data-management-framework-for-australian-universities/.

Delivering Data to Improve Reporting on Australia’s Environment

Australia’s national research infrastructures are working together to streamline access to integrated data for State of the Environment reporting and other environmental assessments.

See: https://www.tern.org.au/news-ecoassets-launch/.

Verifying the Accuracy of Globally Important Space-Based Imagery

The ability of the world’s space agencies to deliver verifiable satellite imagery data is reliant on reference data collected on-ground at sites such as TERN’s Litchfield Savanna SuperSite in the Northern Territory.

One of the world’s most important environmental monitoring sites, Litchfield supports global satellite environmental monitoring programs and is considered critical in ensuring that world-wide data products are accurate and reliable for Australia and beyond.

See: https://www.tern.org.au/news-litchfield-calval/.

Research Software Policies Worldwide

Research software is essential for research data, so how should governments respond?

The Research Software Alliance provides an overview of the current state of international adoption of research software policies and concrete advice for national governments wishing to update their policies.

See: https://www.researchsoft.org/blog/2021-12/.

Tour TERN’s Rainforest Monitoring SuperSite

Take a virtual tour of TERN’s environmental monitoring site in the rainforests of Yidinji land in Far North Queensland. Learn about the sensors, cameras and surveys used to monitor the ecosystem, its plants, animals and processes, providing data for researchers around the world.

See: https://www.tern.org.au/tour-terns-rainforest-monitoring-supersite/.

Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation Newsletter

The Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) at Federation University Australia has published its latest newsletter. This issue includes news about the Agriculture Research Federation Platform, Mine Rehabilitation Trials Online, Virtual Honour Roll, and PhD Scholarship opportunities.

To view these and other stories, visit: https://www.cerdi.edu.au/cb_pages/news/CeRDINewsletterSpring2021.php.

Chat in the Lounge with AAF

At the end of each year, the AAF team hold a general meeting to give subscribers an insight into the year. This year, AAF tried something different by hosting a live webinar. Elleina Filippi moderated the panel which included Heath Marks, John Scullen and Melroy Almeida.

The webinar was a success and provided an opportunity for an interactive way for viewers to ask questions in real time. 2021 has been a big year for the AAF and we very much look forward to the new year.

For more about the webinar, click here: https://aaf.edu.au/project/chat-in-the-lounge-with-aaf/.
To watch the full webinar, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3RVF0nfxoI.

International Developments in Unique Identifiers for Samples

The IGSN is a globally unique and persistent sample identifier for physical samples and associated metadata. Since its inception in 2004, it has grown rapidly and now 10 million identifiers have been minted. To support continued growth, in 2018 IGSN launched the IGSN 2040 project, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, to create a strategic plan and roadmap for evolving its technical platform and governance structure. A key finding was that IGSN should partner with a complementary organization to provide scalable and sustained registration services and technical infrastructure.

DataCite and IGSN have now announced that they are forming a partnership to help sustain identifiers for physical samples into the future.

See: https://blog.datacite.org/igsn-and-datacite-partnership/.

Appointment of New Pawsey Chair

The Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre announces Tim Shanahan has been appointed its new Chair, succeeding John Langoulant who had been Pawsey’s Chair since 2014.

Mr Shanahan joins Pawsey’s board with more than 20 years’ experience in leading and driving performance across a wide range of industries, including ICT, research, infrastructure, energy, minerals, and financial services.

Read more: https://pawsey.org.au/appointment-of-new-pawsey-chair/.

ARDC Reflects on the Research Data Alliance Plenary 18

The Research Data Alliance Plenary, held in October and November 2021, saw over 600 registrants from 40 countries converge to improve data sharing. The ARDC team shares their insights on the event.

See: https://ardc.edu.au/news/the-ardc-reflects-on-research-data-alliance-plenary-18/.

ARCOS Symposium Outcome

The Symposium brought together those involved in the Australian Research Container Orchestration Services (ARCOS) to facilitate community building, discuss use cases, and learn about the solutions and services being implemented.

See: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG25fMbdLRa6Z0-fAs2IrWE0lfuN6A2Ed.

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.