April 2018 national eResearch newsletter

Would you like to improve the impact and reach of your research and data skills training activities?  Yes?  Register now for the ANDS-NECTAR-RDS Power up your data skills training workshop in Canberra.

This will take place on Tuesday May 1, 9.30-3.30pm, JG Crawford Building, The Australian National University.

The workshop will focus on training techniques applicable to academic learners in universities, research institutions or virtual laboratories such as HDR students, early and mid-career researchers, users of virtual laboratories or e-research infrastructure, etc.

For further information on this free workshop, and to register, visit https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/canberra-power-up-your-data-skills-training-tickets-44213036382.

Register today for ORCID’s State of the Nation webinar to learn about the achievements and activities planned for ORCID in Australia.  It will take place on Thursday 3 May 2018, 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM (AEST).

This webinar will explain who the Australian ORCID Consortium members are, review the Consortium’s current state and achievements, and discuss how you can continue to support ORCID at your organisation.

For more information, visit https://aaf.edu.au/news/events.html.

The next monthly Tech Talk (virtually and at locations around Australia) will be held at 15:00-16:00 AEST on Friday, 4-May-18.  The topic will be the Internet of Things, with speakers yet to be finalised.

Keep an eye on the Meetup page for further information, at https://www.meetup.com/monthlytechtalk/.

Addressing research problems in Earth and Environmental Science requires aggregating data from multiple sources.  In Australia, data is collected by multiple agencies including government, NCRIS facilities, CRCs, etc, and collaboration to enable aggregation is complex.

The US Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) has addressed this issue over the last 20 years through forming a collaborative partnership with NASA, NOAA, USGS and others.

CSIRO, NCI, ALA, TERN, AuScope, IMOS, ANDS/NeCTAR/RDS are organising this workshop which aims to facilitate the development of a similar partnership in Australia.  See http://www.c3dis.com/1725.

Contact Simon Cox (simon.cox@csiro.au) or Lesley Wyborn (lesley.wyborn@anu.edu.au).

The National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore, and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate in the fields of supercomputing, networking, data analytics, scientific software applications and visualisation.

The two supercomputing centres will collaborate in areas such as strategy, best practice and shared experiences in planning, defining, administering, and supporting industry engagement, outreach activities, training and stakeholder management.  Governance matters on resource access and sharing, resource allocation, export control, infrastructure accreditation;  user support tools and methods;  HPC software development and cybersecurity will also be considered.

See https://www.pawsey.org.au/2018/04/pawsey-is-strengthening-international-relationships/.

In March, work started on the Australian Environmental Microbiome Research Data Cloud project which will link significant national soil and marine datasets with national biosciences computational infrastructure and services.  Experts from a range of collaborating organisations are developing this research cloud to make the data easier to find, analyse and interpret.

Understanding the combined genetic material of the microorganisms in their environment is of broad national and international utility for academic researchers, industry and government agencies, but to date is only accessible to skilled bioinformaticians, limiting its potential.

Full story: https://www.embl-abr.org.au/biordc-mar-18/.

Rapid Identity Provider (IdP) is the Australian Access Federation’s (AAF) new cloud hosted service. It provides a fast, easy option to connect your organisation to hundreds of research and education services through the AAF.

This service delivers a range of features including updates, security patches, maintenance and more. Whether your organisation is large or small, Rapid IdP provides a solution for your needs.

Connect to the AAF the easy way and get back to the work that matters to you.

Visit www.aaf.edu.au for more information.

A consortium including RTI Connectivity, AARNet, Google and Alcatel Submarine Networks announced that the construction of the Japan-Guam-Australia Cable System (JGA) has officially commenced.  “New submarine cable systems are providing a much-needed boost to communications infrastructure into Australia.  AARNet’s investment in JGA complements our investment in the INDIGO subsea cable system, providing connectivity into North and Southeast Asia to meet the substantial growth in bandwidth demand for science, research, teaching and learning.  This will allow Australian universities to have unconstrained access to meet the big data challenges of the future,” said AARNet CEO Chris Hancock.

See https://news.aarnet.edu.au/construction-begins-on-the-japan-guam-australia-cable-system/.

The Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) at Federation University Australia recently commissioned a series of short films about data democracy.  Data Democracy FAQ provides insights from leading Australian experts about the key concepts associated with Data Democracy.

Six short films showcase leading experts discussing the concept of Data Democracy including Dr Gillian Sparkes, Prof Richard Sinnott, Mr George Fong, and Mr Paul Box.  CeRDI’s Assoc Prof Helen Thompson and Assoc Prof Peter Dahlhaus also provide key commentary about the concept and importance of data democracy.

See http://www.cerdi.edu.au/DataDemocracyFAQs.

Find out how to create great data records for Trove.  Our new two-part blog series is for collection managers, repository owners, or anyone who shares online collection data with Trove.  Learn how to build a record from the ground up – covering everything from basic essentials, to different ways you can explore linked records and maximise discoverability.

Read more on the Trove blog at http://www.nla.gov.au/blogs/trove/2018/02/09/the-perfect-trove-record-part-1.

Geoscience Australia and the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) have launched a tool that makes viewing satellite imagery of Australia easier than ever.  The Sentinel Australia Regional Access (SARA) portal is a new, user-friendly interface enabling the public to easily access the latest images of the Australian landscape beamed down to Earth from the constellation of European Sentinel satellites.

For more information, visit http://nci.org.au/2018/04/11/satellite-data-click-button/.

Don’t forget that AeRO is helping spread the word on the latest eResearch job opportunities.  We post jobs immediately to https://twitter.com/AeRO_eResearch and also update on our website at http://aero.edu.au/eresearch-careers/.

This is a free service for the eResearch community – to advertise a position, simply email loretta@aero.edu.au.

Current vacancies include:  an eResearch Director, a Solutions Analyst, an ORCiD Regional Membership Specialist, a Head of Research Computing, and a Machine Learning Data Engineer.