January 2021 National eResearch Newsletter

Global collaboration can enhance the development of personalised treatments for paediatric cancer. But geography and rules that protect personal data can make sharing and comparing essential data difficult or even impossible.

The Australian BioCommons Zero Childhood Cancer Flagship project is a collaborative partnership between Australia (ZERO Childhood Cancer) and the US (Kids First Data Resource) that allows workflows and analysis tools to be used seamlessly across international datasets using the cloud-based Cavatica analysis platform.

Join the webinar on 21 January to learn how it is being used to enhance patient outcomes.

More information and to Register: https://www.biocommons.org.au/events/kids-cancer.

Pawsey Supercomputing Centre invites you to join us for Pawsey Hour (Ask. Me. Anything). The AMA is an opportunity to join in a discussion with Pawsey expert staff and an online community of peers. February’s topic is “Bioinformatics” so if you have any pressing questions please join the session (via Zoom):

New researchers who want to know if Pawsey services are for them, and
Current users who have specific questions about our infrastructure and expertise, or their research challenges (within the Pawsey context).

Register here: https://pawsey.org.au/event/pawsey-hour-ask-me-anything-bio-informatics/.

The next annual NZ eResearch Conference (online and face-face) will take place in Wellington from 10 – 12 Feb, 2021.

The in-person and online conference features a theme of Level UP, focusing on the increasing speed, agility, scale, and collaboration required in research today, which is even more important with COVID-19’s global impact on research.

View the Programme here: https://www.eresearchnz2021.org.nz/social-programme/.

Read more and register at https://www.eresearchnz2021.org.nz/.

Through community consultations and surveys, we have identified a developing need in Australia for an expanded and integrated range of in vitro systems for the purposes of discovering gene function, modelling disease and therapeutic development. This includes, for example, models using cell lines, iPS cells, cell & tissue cultures, organoids, and “on-a-chip” systems.

Phenomics Australia is therefore seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from potential service partners to provide valuable and sustainable in vitro modelling services to the research community.

EOI must be submitted by completing the online form by Friday Feb. 12th, 2021, at https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=XHJ941yrJEaa5fBTPkhkNyfCN83SQ15MipVLy_fWgFZUNFpGTFJPWEVINEZUMVFQTzlNSFBWM0dFMC4u.

Australian health research organisations are invited to register their interest in the HeSANDA (Health Studies Australian National Data Asset) Infrastructure Development co-investment stream, part of an initiative to build a national data asset from the outcomes of health studies.

HeSANDA Infrastructure Development will adopt a co-creation approach. ARDC will facilitate collaborative partnerships between research institutions, organisations, and other relevant stakeholders involved in clinical trials research.

An Information Session will be held on 17-Feb.

For more information and to Register, visit https://ardc.edu.au/collaborations/strategic-activities/national-data-assets/health-studies-national-data-asset-program/hesanda-infrastructure-development/.

With the next Tech Talk likely to happen in early Feb 2021, make sure that you are subscribed to the tech Talk mailing list to get info about the next Webinar. That can be done at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeChdNqBhFyRgEW8F4HGiH38HmsSwc3x8EiNb9eMMI-T-w6jQ/viewform

Slides (and videos) from earlier Tech Talks are available at https://sites.google.com/ardc.edu.au/techtalk2020/home.

Please Suggest topics and Vote on upcoming Tech Talk topics at https://poll.ly/#/LyD09l7d.

AARNet’s workshops are focused on improving the sector’s understanding of the capabilities of networks and data movement and how to use the services we provide, such as CloudStor and SWAN. Workshops provide the practical knowledge needed to transfer, store and manage research data (of any size) in complex scenarios throughout the research and data lifecycle.

Group Bookings are now open for 2021 Train-The-Trainer workshops.

Find out more at https://news.aarnet.edu.au/aarnet-train-the-trainer-workshops/.

The allocations for the 2021 National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme, providing compute resources on four national HPC supercomputers – NCI’s Gadi, the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre’s Magnus, the University of Queensland’s Flashlite, and the Monash University’s MASSIVE – were announced on 21 December 2020.

You can view the successful allocations here: https://my.nci.org.au/mancini/ncmas/2021/outcomes.

Having good metadata is essential if you want your data, products and services to be discoverable on the web and machine actionable. The Australia and New Zealand Metadata Working Group (ANZ MDWG) has sought to assist users to a better understanding of metadata, so has developed a video: Metadata: What is it, and Why is it so Important? (https://sho.co/1C95Q).

MDWG also developed Metadata Best Practice Guidelines to assist in implementing the AS/NZS ISO 19115.1:2015 metadata standard that was officially endorsed for Australia and New Zealand Region since 2015.

Contact ANZ_MDWG@ga.gov.au for more information and feedback.

The Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) at Federation University recently distributed its quarterly newsletter. The newsletter features a range of research activities that CeRDI is collaborating on, with key stakeholders and project partners. This includes the recently funded Agriculture Research Federation (AgReFed) platform, the commencement of a pilot project around mine rehabilitation trial data, and a new leadership role within the Food Agility CRC Data Constellation.

To view the CeRDI newsletter please visit: http://www.cerdi.edu.au/cb_pages/news/CeRDINewsletterSpring2020.php.

NCI’s 2019-20 Annual Report, introducing Australia’s next-generation supercomputer Gadi, is now available from the NCI website at https://nci.org.au/about-us/annual-reports.

The Annual Report features research highlights from leading computational scientists and an in-depth look at the generational shift from the previous Raijin machine to the new Gadi peak facility.

Read more at https://nci.org.au/about-us/annual-reports.

Associate Professor Christoph Federrath from The Australian National University led a team simulating turbulence at the supersonic/subsonic boundary, a key part of star formation.

The team used computing resources from the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre as well as from NCI to conduct their simulation.

Read more here: https://nci.org.au/research/research-highlights/study-helps-unlock-secrets-star-formation.

Introducing the new AAF website with a fresh look and feel. The new AAF website was designed to make sharing information easier with the community. We want to help you find the information you need with intuitive navigation and accessible design.

Check out our new website https://aaf.edu.au/.

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

Here are some current vacancies:  Communications and Outreach Manager, eResearch Software Specialist, Senior Science Communicator, Coordinator, Science and Partnerships, Research Cloud Development & Operations Manager.