eResearch Strategic Positioning for the Future

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