Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) Incubator

The Australian Access Federation (AAF) has partnered with the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) to develop a trust and identity reference architecture. The incubator project will enable consistent application of the technology and policy components of the Trust and Identity (T&I) Framework for research collaborations.  

ARDC is Australia’s leading research data facility, accelerating Australian research and innovation by driving excellence in the creation, analysis and retention of high-quality data assets. 

AAF are collaborating with ARDC through the Trust and Identity Pathfinder program, funded by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). This incubator will test the entirety of the Framework and uplift the interoperability of ARDC’s Nectar Research Cloud. The incubator will ensure the trust and identity policies and technologies are reusable across ARDC’s Thematic Research Data Commons, to support researchers across distributed infrastructures and research communities.  

Reusable, interoperable and scalable architecture for data platforms 

The AAF has developed a system-wide T&I Framework for Australia’s national research infrastructure. T&I underpins every aspect of modern research – it is fundamental infrastructure that will create significant advances in outcomes for Australian researchers. 

The combination of policies and technology will build a connected research, innovation and translation network, and provide enhanced collaboration opportunities with support from a highly skilled workforce. The framework will deliver improved trusted access to industry, government and academia to enhance research translation and collaboration.  

ARDC has established three national-scale research data commons (RDCs) to meet Australia’s future research needs with long-term, enduring digital infrastructure: People, Planet, and Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences (HASS) and Indigenous.  

ARDC’s Director, Services Ben Chiu says, “The Planet RDC provides national data infrastructure for environmental and earth science researchers and policy makers, to address the complex environmental challenges facing society, and understand how ecosystems respond to change, future risks and uncertainties.  

“The People RDC delivers national data infrastructure for health research and translation. Currently, the data and digital platforms researchers need to access spans multiple layers of government, health service operations, studies, facilities and the private sector.  

“The HASS and Indigenous RDC is harnessing research data to enhance Australian social and cultural wellbeing, and help Australia understand and preserve our culture, history and heritage.” 

Each RDC integrates the ARDC’s underpinning compute, storage infrastructure and services with data assets, analysis platforms and tools. One of the key principles of the RDCs is to ensure solutions deployed support the maximum number of researchers.  

System wide enhancements to benefit research collaborations  

The ARDC incubator will enable a shared understanding of good practice access and authentication, protecting the safety of the services delivered within a research collaboration, and by extension their facilities and institutions.  

AAF’s Head of eResearch Nick Rossow says, “Our reusable, interoperable and scalable architecture will enable key national digital research infrastructures (NDRI) to interoperate to benefit researchers, communities and partners. We will leverage outcomes from our other incubators to increase connectivity and accelerate the next generation of trust and identity solutions.” 

Ben Chiu further says, “An improved governance and assurance framework is required to support researchers and institutions in collaboratively leveraging large-scale Australian datasets safely and securely. Development and maintenance of these integrated datasets requires coordinated infrastructure that provides seamless access and applies standards across the collections to allow for data interoperability. 

“Through our partnership with AAF, we will continue to help Australian researchers deliver innovative outcomes and critical insights to inform and benefit public policy and Australian society more broadly.” 

AAF has partnered with Microscopy Australia exploring impact tracking through persistent identifiers (PIDs).

Microscopy Australia are a consortium of university-based microscopy facilities that more than 3,500 researchers across Australia use each year. They aim to empower Australian science and innovation by making advanced microscopes accessible to all researchers.

One of the greatest challenges in research is to connect and report on distributed services and this incubator explores how richer reporting, impact tracking and usage data can be provided through ORCID iDs and PIDs across national research infrastructure.