January 2016 national eResearch newsletter

The Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) is a unique identifier which links individual researchers in a non-ambiguous manner to their research output and activities. Use of ORCID is gaining momentum world-wide with nearly 2 million users so far. The Australian ORCID Consortium comprises of thirty-eight institutions including thirty-four universities, the Heart Research Institute, CSIRO, ARC and NHMRC.

This event will also coincide with the first ORCID Outreach Meeting in Australia, on 15-16 February 2016, at the ANU. The outreach meeting will provide members with a forum to share and explore information, ideas and experiences on the implementation of ORCID in various settings. ORCID experts will also be available at the outreach meeting.

Register for the ORCID Launch (Monday 15 February)
Register for the ORCID outreach meeting (Monday 15 to Tuesday 16 February)

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Research Data Services Project.
The Research Data Services (RDS) project is launching its Food and Health Flagship, benefiting Health and Life Science researchers around the country.  RDS is a federally funded project, for which The University of Queensland (UQ) is the lead agent.
The Flagship will develop data services to provide Health and Life Science researchers with an open ‘multi-omics’ data platform.  Multi-omics includes the study of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomics sciences.  This platform will support the storage, integration, analysis, annotation, visualisation, sharing and publication of data generated from multi-omic research.
RDS Project Director, Mr Richard Northam said the Food and Health Flagship represents a significant step in the alignment of activities across NCRIS projects for the benefit of Australian researchers.  “The RDS project, a National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) funded project, has aligned this flagship with Bioplatforms Australia (BPA), another NCRIS project, to form a strategic partnership which will increase the overall value of NCRIS investments by the Australian Government and enable a more cohesive and coordinated approach” Mr Northam said.
Read More

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eResearch NZ 2016 Queenstown.
This will take place Feb 9-11, 2016 and is nearly here. This is a national (NZ) forum for discussion aiming to promote shared approaches to supporting eResearch needs;  to highlight current and emerging research priorities and trends;  to draw on experience from other regions;  and to share work in progress and project outcomes. There is still time to register, so if you are interested please head over to http://eresearch2016.org.nz/

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Intersect-led Consortium Wins LIEF Grant for HPC.
The Intersect-led consortium of ten universities coordinated by Professor Geraint Lewis from the University of Sydney was recently awarded an ARC LIEF Grant for funding commencing in 2016. The funding of $1.04M will be used to further improve our HPC capabilities and provide the next generation of HPC for hundreds of researchers at Intersect member universities.

Prof Geraint Lewis, lead CI, said: ‘The NSW research community has a strong track record in using High Performance Computing (HPC) to achieve major breakthroughs across a range of disciplines, from astrophysics, bioinformatics, environmental science, information technology to engineering. The funding for new NSW HPC capacity will enable world-leading NSW researchers to pursue their cutting-edge work in increasingly competitive environments, while using the latest HPC technologies’.Go to http://intersect.org.au/time/news for further information.

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ResBaz NZ 2016.

New Zealand is joining countries from across the globe in the upcoming ResBaz 2016 (https://feb2016.resbaz.com/ ). With locations in Auckland and Dunedin (Feb 2-4) you can expect scores of NZ researchers from across the discipline spectrum to come together to share skills, talk digital literacy and research collaboration and partake in Software Carpentry Training (http://software-carpentry.org/ ).  Learn more about what is happening in Auckland and Dunedin here https://feb2016.resbaz.com/auckland/ and here https://feb2016.resbaz.com/dunedin/ .

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23 (Research Data) Things: coming to a desktop near you in 2016!
23 (research data) Things is a program of self-directed professional development being organised by ANDS throughout 2016. If you are a person who cares for, and about, research data and want to fill in some gaps, learn more, find out what others are thinking… then this may be for you! It’s online and free, so all you need to commit is up to an hour each week to complete the activities.

Find out more at http://ands.org.au/23-things.html. The kick-off webinar discussion takes place 1 March.

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NZ eResearch Software Carpentry Training.
Software Carpentry instructor Training reaches New Zealand! As an official Software Carpentry Affiliate, NeSI has co-ordinated the Software Carpentry Programme right across New Zealand in 2015 and they are kicking of this year’s training with an Instructor Training course being hosted by none other than Aleksandra Pawlik from the Software Sustainability Institute in Manchester. The programme teaches researchers software-related skills, introducing them to the world of eResearch and all of its benefits. The Instructor Training Workshop will add twenty new Instructors to the Instructor pool growing NZ’s capacity to upskill researchers from various disciplines. See the full list of attendees here – https://www.nesi.org.nz/news/2016/01/software-carpentry-instructor-training-hits-new-zealand

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Melbourne Science Hackfest, 5-6 March 2016 
ANDS, NeCTAR, CSIRO, ALA, VicNODE, AURIN University of Melbourne​, TERN​ and RDS have joined forces to put on a weekend Hackfest in March.
Find a rock and create a (data) diamond!  Over the weekend your team will mash, app, API, analyse or visualise NCRIS and/or CSIRO datasets – with prizes for the best ideas and innovative applications (first prize $2,000). You can organise your team beforehand or come along and find a team at the event.

Register now at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/melbourne-science-hackfest-tickets-20718415338
or contact Karen.visser@ands.org.au or Jens.klump@csiro.au for more info.​——
NCI, a year in review
2015 was another big year for the National Computational Infrastructure with more research, projects and collaboration taking place to provide world-class services to Australian researchers, industry and government.  You can read more about what’s been happening in our latest Annual Report that’s now available for you to view and download online.
View and read: http://bit.ly/1M61ux5
Download: http://bit.ly/NCIAnnualReport

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Report on Australian visit of Dr Niklas Blomberg, Director, ELIXIR
ELIXIR is EMBL-EBI’s initiative for data infrastructure for life science information. Director, Dr Niklas Blomberg, toured Australia in late 2015 as a guest of VLSCI / EMBL Australia Bioinformatics Resource, with funding support from Bioplatforms Australia.

As he learned about the Australian life sciences data infrastructure landscape, Dr Blomberg was asked what data integration and distribution strategies he thought would be needed to support our biotech, agri-bio, education and medical research sectors in the future.

Dr Blomberg’s report on the Australian scene is now available. Full story.