eResearch Newsletter December 2025

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

Australasian eResearch Newsletter - December 2025

Message from AeRO:

The eResearch Conference 2025 Program Committee held its last meeting on 3-Dec-25, when it took the time to work through the feedback delegates have provided, either through Slido at the Conference, or subsequently via the formal conference survey. You will find a couple of summaries within the body of this Newsletter (at the start and at the end).

Request for Prize Committee membership:
Luc Betbeder-Matibet writes: AeRO will be forming a prize committee. You are invited to self-nominate or to encourage someone from your organisation to join our Prize Committee. We will keep this committee to about 10-12 people from our member organisations and wider community. We will aim to have a diverse and representative group with a mix of roles, experience and backgrounds. We are especially interested if any of you have previous prize committee experience.
Please contact Luc directly (luc@unsw.edu.au) if this is of interest.
He would like this group to meet in early 2026 and issue a call for nominations for our “AeRO early career practitioner” prize.

Alex Reid, Newsletter Editor.

CONTENTS:
* Feedback on eResearch 2025.
* AI for Science Hackathon in 2026: applications by 6-Jan.
* eResearch-NZ Preliminary Programme Available: 10 to 12-Feb.
* Pawsey Summer Internship Poster Showcase 2026: 13-Feb.
* 21 Years of eduroam in Australia.
* Sarah Beecroft in ARDC’s “Shaping Research Software” Series.
* Innovation Starts with Data: ARDC Year in Review 2025.
* National Research Infrastructure (NRI) Roadmap Consultation Closed.
* ARDC Nectar Research Cloud Node at Pawsey Now Live.
* Ethics Review Body Benchmarking Activity.
* Impact of AI, GPUs, Next-gen Clouds on Australian Research.
* Australian Dataspaces Workshop on the Future of Trusted Data Sharing.
* Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation Newsletter.
* Case Studies from the HASS and Indigenous RDC Symposium 2025.
* More Findings from Conference Feedback.

Feedback on eResearch 2025

Luc Betbeder-Matibet writes: Overall the conference received very positive feedback from our attendees and exhibitors. On the formal feedback 95% rated the organisation highly (4 or 5 out of 5).

Many positive comments were made for increased focus on new attendees, volunteers, prizes and overall energy.

There was mixed feedback on the venue (for the growing size of our conference) with increased comments about space overall especially during breaks, for room size during session and for the configuration of the rooms (especially for BOFs). There was also mixed feedback on when we should close the conference on the final day.

There was more critical feedback about the noise during and format of the poster session presentations, the overall noise in some rooms during sessions was called out and so was the conference app not being great for dealing with the concurrent sessions.

All of the feedback is being considered by our committees and is shared with our conference company partners.

I want to thank everyone who submitted feedback via Slido or the app, your comments and participation make our conference better.

AI for Science Hackathon in 2026: applications by 6-Jan

Together with NVIDIA and OpenACC organisation, NCI Australia, Monash University, Australian BioCommons, Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre and SHARON.AI, in mid-February will be a hands-on, multi-day hackathon.

This week is designed to help computational scientists and researchers accelerate and optimise their applications on a variety of data centre architectures, including CPUs and GPUs. This event is ideal for scientists, researchers and developers working in Australian research institutions, NCRIS facilities, national science agencies and research.

Application deadline: 6 January
Day 0 (online): 13 February
Days 1-4 (in person): 24-27 February
Location: Monash University, Clayton Campus

Link: https://www.openhackathons.org/s/siteevent/a0CUP00001FSddg2AD/se000394.

eResearch-NZ Preliminary Programme Available: 10 to 12-Feb

We’re excited to unveil an early look at the speakers and topics of our eResearch NZ / eRangahau Aotearoa 2026 programme!

Ngā mihi to everyone who submitted session proposals in response to our call for stories, challenges, and inspirations aligned with our theme ‘Are you ready?’

Thank you also to our Programme Committee — Michael Black, Georgina Rae, Chloé Van Der Burg, Nick Jones, Nicky Rawnsley, and Maxime Rio — who’ve woven everything together across our three days (10-12 February 2026).

See: https://eresearchnz.co.nz/programme/.

Pawsey Summer Internship Poster Showcase 2026: 13-Feb

You’re invited to Pawsey’s annual interactive virtual Poster Showcase, where this year’s cohort of Pawsey Summer Interns present their cutting-edge research projects – from quantum computing and machine learning to climate modelling and energy systems to health analytics and advanced materials.

Meet and engage with 12 interns in our virtual environment, explore diverse computational projects and network with emerging talent in HPC and scientific computing.

Discover how emerging talent is advancing Australian scientific computing.

Date: 13 February 2026
Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm AWST
Where: Virtual Poster Showcase on Gather Town

Link: https://pawsey.org.au/event/pawsey-summer-internship-poster-showcase-2026.

21 Years of eduroam in Australia

AARNet has led the national deployment and evolution of eduroam since 2004, delivering secure, federated Wi-Fi access to students, researchers, staff, and international visitors across the country, whether they are on campus or on the go.

This milestone highlights not only the technical achievements but also the long-standing collaboration between Australia’s research and education institutions, AARNet, and international partners committed to borderless academic mobility.

Find out more: https://www.aarnet.edu.au/21-years-of-eduroam-in-australia.

Sarah Beecroft Participates in ARDC’s “Shaping Research Software” Series

ARDC spoke with Dr Sarah Beecroft, a Supercomputing Specialist at Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. Sarah supports life science researchers across Australia to use Pawsey’s supercomputer Setonix, the most powerful public HPC centre in the Southern Hemisphere.

Her role includes technical solutions, training, and advocating for new features. One big project recently has been porting across NVIDIA-based structural biology tools like AlphaFold to AMD GPUs. The application of AlphaFold to predict protein structures and resolve the spectrum of fundamental biology questions through to precision drug targeting, is one of the most advanced examples of AI in life science.

See: https://ardc.edu.au/article/shaping-research-software-an-interview-with-dr-sarah-beecroft/.

Innovation Starts with Data: ARDC Year in Review 2025

In its 2025 year in review, the ARDC showcases its achievements in building world-class digital research infrastructure, advancing AI capabilities for researchers and fostering collaboration across research, industry and government.

See the Report at: https://ardc.edu.au/case-study/innovation-starts-with-data-ardc-year-in-review-2025/.

National Research Infrastructure (NRI) Roadmap Consultation Closed

The Australian Government has released its National Research Infrastructure (NRI) Roadmap Issues Paper for consultation and has been seeking input from the research community to shape the future directions of Australia’s national research infrastructure system.

One of the key programs for Australia’s NRI funding is the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) administered by the Department of Education. Additionally, NRI capabilities are also established and supported through other Federal Government portfolios, research funding agencies, state and territory governments, universities, research organisations, and the private sector.

See: https://consultations.education.gov.au/nri.

Submissions closed on 8-Dec-25.

ARDC Nectar Research Cloud Node at Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre Now Live

A new ARDC Nectar Research Cloud node is now operational at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, boosting Western Australia’s research capabilities and enabling collaboration across institutions nationwide.

See: https://ardc.edu.au/article/ardc-nectar-research-cloud-node-now-live-at-pawsey/.

Ethics Review Body Benchmarking Activity

Same Data, Different Decisions: Inside Australia’s First Ethics Review Body Benchmarking Activity.

Ethics review bodies play a crucial role in determining how clinical trial data can be shared and reused. A new benchmarking study by CT:IQ, supported by the ARDC, reveals how different committees approach these complex decisions, and what can be done to improve consistency and confidence in the process.

See: https://ardc.edu.au/article/same-data-different-decisions-inside-australias-first-ethics-review-body-benchmarking-activity/.

Impact of AI, GPUs, Next-gen Clouds on Australian Research

The research infrastructure playbook is being redefined. From escalating GPU demand to the growth of multidisciplinary data workloads, Australian institutions face critical decisions that will define its competitive position for years.

GPU usage in universities has jumped from 20-30% to above 50%. The reason? AI is accelerating research workflows, helping teams process decades of data faster and run more experiments than ever before.

Watch this 3-minute interview from CAUDIT Cloud for a grounded perspective on how AI, GPUs and next-generation cloud will shape the future of Australian research.

Watch here: https://www.macquariecloudservices.com/blog/ai-gpus-and-the-future-of-australian-research-insights-from-aero-2025/.

Australian Dataspaces Workshop Charts the Future of Trusted Data Sharing

A recent Australian Dataspaces workshop brought together experts to chart a national vision for trusted, interoperable data sharing that drives collaboration, innovation and societal benefit.

See: https://ardc.edu.au/article/australian-dataspaces-workshop-charts-the-future-of-trusted-data-sharing/.

Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation Newsletter

Federation University’s Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) recently published its quarterly newsletter which includes the following research updates:

•      Rainfall Mapper
•      Vic Drought Hub horticulture project
•      Impact of onshore renewable energy facilities on threatened birds
•      Tracking Latham’s Snipe and the Tasmanian Land Conservancy
•      NRM Regions Australia: In the Tent with CeRDI
•      Exploring the impact of litter on bird behaviour and survival
•      Visualising Australasia’s Soils: Latest news
•      Chinese Delegation visit CeRDI
•      Birds, Litter and Citizen Science feature on ABC Radio

These and other news items are available at https://cerdi.edu.au/CeRDINewsletterSpring2025.

Case Studies from the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Symposium 2025

Discover innovative tools, datasets and workflows that drive impactful, data-informed research in humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) with these recordings and resources from the 2025 HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Symposium.

See: https://ardc.edu.au/resource/case-studies-from-the-hass-and-indigenous-research-data-commons-symposium-2025/.

More Findings from Conference Feedback

To complement the earlier article in this issue, here are some thoughts from Alex Reid, which illustrate the dilemmas facing the Committee in many cases.

1. Should there be more parallel streams or fewer? There have been those advocating both sides of this question. Fewer means easier choice for delegates about which to attend, and better quality (on average); on the other hand, this leaves the choice to the Committee rather than to delegates; and we are already turning away perfectly acceptable presentations.

2. Should we reduce the length of submitted presentations (currently 15+5 mins)? Some conferences allow quite a lot less time per session (eg the IDW sessions), and I’ve been presenting at a conference where I was allowed 7 minutes (and not as a Lightning talk!). In favour of reducing the time is that you can then fit more sessions in, and it forces the speaker to get to the point quickly and ensures it is punchy and relevant. One the other hand, several delegates expressed the view that 20 mins was too little and they wanted more detail.

3. Should we limit the number of keynote sessions (we often have 8 or 9)? In favour of having fewer is that it gives more space to submitted presentations (eg 10 submitted to 1 keynote); and keynotes are not always stand-outs, or “on-topic”. On the other hand, they sometimes *are* really good, and sometimes they are very good but not really “on topic” – for instance the Mars keynote was singled out by many delegates as very enjoyable, but others pointed out that it wasn’t really that relevant. By the way, the Committee works really hard to ensure that sponsor keynotes are not just sales pitches, but not always successfully!

4. Should we finish early on the last day, or reserve a “block-buster” session for the last slot? In favour of finishing early, delegates are quite tired by then, and it gives more options for homebound flights (note that WA is often cited as needing this, but in fact this is not so – they can leave at 7pm and be home by 8 or 9pm local time). On the other hand, “block-busters” have rarely turned out to be just that.

AeRO will shortly be issuing an invitation to join the Program Committee for 2026. If you think you have the answers to some of the above dilemmas (and more), or at least are prepared to wrestle with these decisions, then feel free to nominate. We are always keen to have a good diversity of views on the Committee.

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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