Research Infrastructure for the Social Sciences – the next ten years
Isabel Cereon1, Amanda Lawrence2, Steven McEachern3, Wojtek Tomaszewski4, Nikita Sharma4 1Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA), Canberra, ACT, Australia2ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic, Australia3Australian Data Archive, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia4Institute for Social Science Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Abstract
In 2023 the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) has been working on a Decadal Plan for national research infrastructure (NRI), identified as a priority for the social sciences research sector in the 2022 report Australia’s Data-Enabled Research Future: The Social Sciences (ACOLA and ASSA, 2022). The aim of the decadal plan is to build sector-wide consensus around the research capabilities required for social science and humanities related research over the next 10 years. The project involved a stocktake of existing research infrastructure across the higher education, government, commercial and GLAM sectors, and consultation on the emerging data, infrastructure, workforce and governance needs and models that could best work for the sector. In this BoF, we would like to present the findings to the eResearch community and get feedback on the proposed strategies.
The BoF will cover:
– The value of social systems thinking for national challenges across a range of disciplines
– The kinds of platforms, capabilities, tools, data and standards social scientists will need over the next years
– The various governance and funding models that may be best suited to support and deliver national research infrastructures
– The skills and training required for the Australian researcher workforce to use those infrastructures
– The case for investing in NRI for social science challenges and the benefits for Australian social and economic wellbeing.
Please join us for a lively discussion as we consider next steps for Social Science research infrastructure.
Biography
Dr Isabel Ceron is Senior Policy Analyst at the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) and leading the ASSA Decadal Plan project (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1189-7023).
Dr Amanda Lawrence, is Research Fellow, Open Knowledge Systems at RMIT University and ADM+S (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2194-8178).
Dr Steve McEachern, is Director of the Australian Data Archive at ANU (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7848-4912).
Assoc Prof Wojtek Tomaszewski is Deputy Director at ISSR, UQ (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4144-8613).
Ms Nikita Sharma is undertaking a PhD at UQ (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2262-8926).
All presenters are members of the ASSA Social Science Decadal Plan Steering Group.