April 2017 national eResearch newsletter

The monthly Tech Talk for May, at various live locations around Australia, will be held on Fri 5 May 3-5pm AEST, on the topic Serverless Architectures.

Serverless architectures are gaining prominence in the tech community for their scalability and reduced operational costs.  These architectures remove some of the need for a traditional server sitting behind an application.  This topic will include speakers sharing their experiences and advice on the benefits and pitfalls of going serverless.  Speakers TBA.
For more information and registration, go to http://www.ands.org.au/partners-and-communities/ands-communities/tech-talks#Serverless_architectures_5_May_2017-1

ANDS is hosting a series of three 30 minutes lunchtime in May which aim to support better management and publication of Health and Medical data.  The sessions are free and open to everybody, especially Medical librarians, Researchers in Medical Research Institutes & Universities, Clinician researchers at hospitals, and Research students.

#1 Funders and Publishers:  Tue 9 May, 12:30pm-1pm AEST.
#2 Storing and Publishing Health and Medical Data:  Tues 16 May, 12:30pm-1pm AEST.
#3 Ethics, Legal issues and data sharing:  Tues 23 May, 12:30pm-1pm AEST.

For further information, including speakers, and registration, see http://www.ands.org.au/news-and-events/presentations/2017/webinars-health-and-medical?ct=t(andsUP_14MAR_2017)

The 13th International Conference on eScience 2017, due to take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand from 24 – 27 October 2017, welcomes submissions for papers for inclusion in the conference programme.

The objective of the eScience Conference is to promote and encourage all aspects of eScience and its associated technologies, applications, and tools.

Key Dates:
Submissions Due: Friday 19 May 2017
Notification of Acceptance: Wednesday 5 July 2017

We look forward to receiving your submission and welcoming you to Auckland in 2017.
See: http://escience2017.org.nz/submissions/call-for-papers/

At the forthcoming OpenStack Day (June 1st), NeCTAR is looking to highlight case studies on how OpenStack Infrastructure (eg The Nectar Research Cloud) supports research and innovation.  Do you have a virtual lab on the Nectar cloud?  Are you utilising “big data” and/or “machine learning” with OpenStack?

NeCTAR would like to invite you to submit a proposal to tell your story (which will be video recorded and promoted via the OpenStack Foundation to its +50k members):

See:  http://australiaday.openstack.org.au/speaker-submission/ or http://australiaday.openstack.org.au/

NeSI (New Zealand eScience Infrastructure) is preparing to replace its NIWA IBM P575/POWER6 and Auckland IBM iDataPlex x86 platforms.  Procurement runs to the end of Q2 2017, with implementation and user migration completed early 2018.

The design for the new platforms was built collaboratively, driven from sector input on needs and consideration of current and potential future gaps in service.

In addition to providing newer, faster supercomputers, there will also be a major increase in research data storage capability, designed for end-to-end workflows across institutional boundaries, virtual research laboratories, and remote visualisation services.

See:  https://www.nesi.org.nz/news/2017/03/nesis-national-platform-procurement-plans

Dr Phil Gurney (pictured) will become QCIF’s new CEO on Tuesday, 2 May 2017.  Phil succeeds Rob Cook, who announced last year that he intended to step down after seven years as QCIF’s CEO.

Phil has a strong track record in research management, innovation and commercialisation of new technologies.  His career spans a broad range of sectors including e-health, manufacturing, biomedical, telecoms, IT, defence and consultancy, with the common theme being identifying and obtaining the best commercial outcomes from R&D projects, and managing research teams to succeed in the broader competitive industry environment.  Read more:  https://www.qcif.edu.au/index.php/news/268-dr-phil-gurney-announced-as-qcif-s-new-ceo

The Commons Conservancy was launched last October to provide a lightweight organisational structure for open projects, especially in the HE sector.  The first project to move through The Commons Conservancy process is FileSender, which is widely used globally, and was jointly developed by AARNet, UNINETT and HEANet.  Guido Aben is on the Board of the Conservancy.

GÉANT supports this effort through a joint memorandum of understanding (MoU) with The Commons Conservancy and its financial partner NLnet Foundation.  The GÉANT community working group SIG-Greenhouse fosters this cooperation.

See https://www.geant.org/News_and_Events/Pages/GEANT-and-FileSender-support-NLnet-Commons-Conservancy-initiative.aspx

The annual international Open Repositories Conference brings together users and developers of open digital repository platforms from higher education, government, galleries, libraries, archives and museums.  The Conference provides an interactive forum for delegates from around the world to come together and explore the global challenges and opportunities facing libraries and the broader scholarly information landscape.

The conference will take place from 26 to 30 June at the Hilton, Brisbane, and is hosted by the University of Queensland (UQ), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Griffith University.

For more information and registration, go to:  https://or2017.net/

This conference will be hosted in Auckland, New Zealand, 24-27 October at the Crowne Plaza.

We’re working with international leaders in eScience, HPC, digital research, bringing together a broad range of research communities from across the globe, including leading international and interdisciplinary research communities, developers, and users of eScience applications and enabling IT technologies.

If you are interested in sponsoring this high profile international event, we’re happy to discuss options which might work best for your organisation and fit well with our goals.

See:  http://escience2017.org.nz/sponsorship/

e-IRG (the European e-Infrastructure Reflection Group) has published an updated version of its “Guide to e-Infrastructure Requirements for European Research Infrastructures” (see http://e-irg.eu/guidelines).  Although aimed primarily at proposers for the ESFRI 2018 Roadmap (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures), this document is also valuable for readers from other domains interested in e-Infrastructures in Europe and in other national and international initiatives.

e-IRG has also published the document “Evaluation of e-Infrastructures and the Development of Related Key Performance Indicators” (KPI document, see http://e-irg.eu/kpi).  This document provides a framework for evaluating e-Infrastructures.