Platforms for Collaboration

The Australian Government is investing $82 million in the Platforms for Collaboration capability to support technological platforms that enhance researchers’ ability to generate, collect, share, analyse, store and retrieve information. These platforms will allow researchers to work seamlessly from desk to desk within and between organisations. Seamless access to collaborative research opportunities, knowledge and information will enable researchers to perform their research more creatively, efficiently and collaboratively across long distances, regardless of location and time, and disseminate their research outcomes with greater effect.

These investments are intended to develop and provide the following basic functionality:

• The achievement of research connectivity and "seamless reach" from researcher desktops to all research resources (across institutions) is supported through the development of the Australian Access Federation (AAF), the provision of advanced network services by AARNet, and by ongoing work towards advanced authorization services and advanced collaborative network services.

• The development of enhanced collaboration services with the goal of supporting national "research workflows" bringing data and analysis services together to solve problems is provided for by the development of the Australian Research Collaboration Service (ARCS).

• The enhancements to capability computing needed to build and operate the "advanced models" of complex systems that lie behind major research goals and indeed some of our hardest national challenges, such as water management, is expected to arise through an investment in National Computational Infrastructure.

• The development of a national research data commons supporting the "data federations" that address broad research questions and global challenges like climate change is a major new undertaking. A document outlining the rationale for an Australian National Data Service (ANDS) is available here and the implementation of ANDS is being finalized through project work with Monash University, the ANU and CSIRO, see the ANDS establishment project. Background details are available here.

• Overall guidance to these developments is provided by the Australian eResearch Infrastructure Council (AeRIC) and the National eResearch Architecture Taskforce (NeAT)

Click here for information on the history of the Platforms for Collaboration activity.