Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation

Federation University AustraliaAdvanced technologies and researchDr Helen ThompsonEngagement, technology transfer and capability building through knowledge management and spatial research

15 October 2015

Federation University Australia

Origins: 1870 Ballarat School of Mines

Campuses: Ballarat, Gippsland, Wimmera

Faculties & Schools:

(dual sector)

Students: ~ 23,000 domestic (69%) and international (31%)

• Business• Education & Arts• Health• Science & Technology• Industry Skills• Federation College

Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation

CeRDI - www.cerdi.edu.au~ 30 staff – 12 research, 8 technical, 7 project, 3 administration

Unaligned to Faculties - reports to DVCR

Major technology and research trends

Ubiquitous high-speed broadband… Universities have the connectivity that the rest of Australia is waiting for

The Petabyte Age… >50% of the world’s data is being collected each year – how will this change current research practices? What do we need to access, publish and share?

Open data policies… Opportunities for Universities and particularly regional universities to play a significant role in generating insight from data

Mobile technologies… App development and responsive design – for student and staff recruitment, engagement, knowledge transfer

3d and visualisation technologies… Massive innovation and research opportunities

National and FedUni research priorities

CeRDI Government, industry and community needs

The application of eResearch and development

of innovative digital solutions to bridge the gap

between academic research and government,

industry and community needs

CeRDI capability:

Research Domains:

Groundwater Soil Agriculture NRM Climate change Urban planning Health History Sports Social science Arts Etc., etc.

Technology & services:

Content management Web portals Knowledge management Single source publishing Web GIS Data interoperability Visualisation Web services Training Servers, hubs Survey instruments Etc., etc.

Research outputs:

Real world applications Community empowerment Capacity building

Government Community Industry Research

Research papers HDR completions Impact assessment Global collaborations Sector development Research-ready datasets Etc., etc.

x =

eResearch and digital innovation

7

CeRDI

Groundwater: Challenges and Strategies - 41st IAH International Congress, Marrakech, September 15-19, 2014

A variety of applications:groundwater , soils, agriculture, biodiversity, fire, history, sports, municipal, etc.

Allows integration of cross-disciplinary data sets

spatial.federation.edu.au

CeRDI capability: spatial data portals

Example projects

Online Farm Trials – www.farmtrials.com.au

GRDC funded 2012 - 2015 All grains trials for Australia online Working with Grower Groups, government, industry Spatial filtering and selective keyword filtering Brings in climate data and soils data on-the-fly Allows data exports Decision support tool for agronomists & growers Research-ready data sets of all grain trials

CropPro – www.croppro.com.au

GRDC funded 2012-2014 CeRDI engaged in Northern and Southern projects in 2014 Online diagnostic tool for wheat and canola constraints Uses Lucid - keying software developed by UQ Science by DAFWA and DEPI (now DEDJTR) Decision support tool for agronomists & growers GRDC funded support in place for further enhancements 2015 & 2016

Sport and Recreation Spatialwww.sportandrecreationspatial.org.au

A national geographic information system (GIS) for presenting spatial data. Evidence based decision making for the sport and recreation sector Increased capacity for research, strategic planning, and development of participation programs and facilities. Provides FedUni and VU researchers with ready data sets to address research questions of national and international significance Attracting government and industry investment in research Generating extensive research publications Aligned with a FedUni PhD which will generate publications and Sports Injuries Atlas

Natural Disaster Research

Major landslide events of January 2011 in the Grampians National ParkFloods precipitated over 190 landslides, contributing significant impact to the environment and communities surrounding the ParkFedUni engaged by Northern Grampians Shire Investigate the social, economic and environmental impact of the eventsProject not only produced traditional research report – but also maps and data and a resource library Benefits of this approached confirmed by the Rapid Response Team responding to bushfires in the region 12 months later

Captures information and data on rare and threatened species Very strong community engagement and support Decision support tool for municipalities, community groups, etc. Research-ready data sets

www.swifft.net.au

Climate adaption

Climate Ready - Motivating residents to create their own interactive, personalised action plan to prepare for the impacts of climate change including flood, fire, drought and heatwave

Building Resilience in Farming and Agribusiness in the Wimmera

South West Climate change portal

www.vvg.org.au

Broadband grant 2011 - 2013 Federates all Victorian groundwater data 5 bore databases, spatial layers, EPA data Predictions on the fly User selected 3D visualisations Allows data exports Decision support tool for practitioners Research-ready data sets

Corangamite Soil Health Knowledge Base www.ccmaknowledgebase.vic.gov.au/soilhealth

Corangamite CMA funded 2012 - 2014 Online portal that combines eLibrary of grey literature with web-GIS Over 3000 documents and 120 layers in the system (legacy data capture) Allows crowd-sourced soil test data (e.g. farm soil tests) Strongly supported by government, industry and community Allows data exports, screen capture as pdf, saved workspace links Decision support tool for farmers, agronomists, catchment managers, Landcare Research-ready data sets of soil and related information

Ballarat Historic Urban Landscapes – www.hulballarat.org.au Captures heritage values for city planning (UNESCO approach) Combines eLibrary, web-GIS, visualisations and social media tools Before & after sliders, photo maps, panoramic visualisations, 3D landscape models Liberated significant municipal data sets to online availability Very strong community engagement and support Decision support tool for city planners, developers, community groups, etc. Research-ready data sets

CeRDI capability in eResearch?

Collaborate with our research, industry and community partners:

To take advantage of the eResearch tools to:

Interoperably integrate data (open data, research data, big data,

sensor data, legacy data, crowdsourced data… any data)

Answer the frequently asked data/information questions

Dynamically generate conceptual and predictive models

Make new discoveries from research ready datasets

Measure the impacts on decision making and facilitate practice

change

Potential growth opportunities

• Spatial information systems• Expand groundwater and soil research programs

nationally and internationally• Extend research and knowledge for agriculture

development and extension• Knowledge management

• Extend to other Research and Development Corporations (RDCs) and geographical locations

• Extend NRM initiatives and application of citizen science tools

• Centre for Excellence

Third party e.g. ABARE, ABS, BOM, CSIRO, EPAs, Unis, ………State base mapping, etc. Water agencies, research organisations, industry, individuals, etc.

End users, e.g. Browser, mobile application, desktop application, groundwater model, etc. Used by: researcher, community group, farmer, environmentalist, media outlet, agribusiness, etc.

Output as: web services (W3C, OGC

compliant)

Input as: Data, map layers, grids, text

and imagery in native format (or web services)

Citizen science

Landcare, environmental and community groups landholders, farmers, individuals tourists, visitors schools, TAFE, University students clubs, volunteers

GIS

SQL

Sensors

Images

Documents

Organisational data

Sounds

CeRDI capability: interoperability