Dr Bernadette Hyland-wood, Professor Nicola Armstrong, Dr Gnana Bharathy, Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen
1Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Biography:
Dr Bernadette Hyland-Wood is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Data Science, Queensland University of Technology, specialising in responsible data science and technological humanism. She is a research investigator on Indigenous-led data governance programs and has chaired international data standards to support community advocacy and evidence-informed policy making. Dr Hyland-Wood actively engages with academia, industry, and public policy makers to advance human-centric technologies.
Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen is a leading Australian statistician and former Director of the QUT Centre for Data Science. Renowned for her work in Bayesian statistics and complex systems modelling, her research spans health, environmental science, and industry applications. She has authored over 350 peer-reviewed publications and secured more than 30 major research grants. Professor Mengersen is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Abstract:
The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) initiated a digital research infrastructure program in 2023 aimed at enhancing digital health research and translation. The ARDC collaborated with the Australian Data Science Network (ADSN) to evaluate digital health infrastructure including computing resources, data and analytics methods, and data accessibility. Having assessed critical national research infrastructure (NRI) requirements to support next generation health data analytics, the Advanced Analytics and AI Resource Hub is now co-designing and building critical components of the infrastructure stack aligned with healthcare-specific use cases. Deployment will be in Virtual Research Environments. The Advanced Analytics and AI Resource Hub emphasises socio-technical assets and resources to be guided by data ethics and governance informed by national and international best practices and the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Building on the findings from the first phase involving researchers, government and industry representatives, Phase 2 leverages a phased and collaborative methodology, grounded in co-design principles to build a sustainable AI Resource Hub aligned with national healthcare research needs and the ARDC Advanced Analytics Reference Architecture. The approach is structured across seven interlinked Work Packages (WPs), each targeting a critical component of the infrastructure stack. This presentation discusses progress toward a nationally coordinated digital infrastructure. Through a collaborative and iterative co-design process, the ARDC and its partners are building deployable, healthcare-specific tools and resources. These efforts mark a critical step toward enabling scalable, ethical, and domain-sensitive digital health research across Australia.