Speakers: Heath Marks, Natasha Simons, Aditi Subramanya, Andrew Rohl.
Chair: Frankie Stevens
Biography:
Heath Marks was appointed by the Council of Australian University Directors of Information Technology (CAUDIT) in July 2009 to head a team to deliver the sustainable operations of Australia’s Trust and Identity services for Research and Education. This includes the national trust authentication framework the Australian Access Federation (AAF), and the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) Consortium Lead for Australia. He is an IT professional with management experience in the successful delivery of transformational IT within the tertiary education and research sector supporting the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
Natasha Simons is Director, National Coordination, for the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). She leads a large, talented team of Program Managers, Product Managers and Subject Matter Experts contributing to deliver ARDC’s strategic Research Data Commons initiatives. Natasha has a high international profile particularly in the area of persistent identifiers and serves on the Australian ORCID Steering Committee, the Research Data Alliance National PID Strategies Interest Group, and is on the Executive Board of DataCite. She plays a key role in the development of the Australian National PID Strategy and Roadmap.
Aditi is driven by a passion for people – uniting communities, solving intricate problems, and forging connections between seemingly disparate concepts. Seeing patterns where others might see chaos, Aditi weaves these ideas into coherent strategies that drive progress and transform ideas into impactful realities. Aditi’s journey has been defined by a relentless pursuit of collaboration, with a belief that the most profound solutions arise from diverse and collective efforts, I am driven to bridge gaps between disciplines and institutions. Aditi’s work centres on fostering collaborations that harness high performance computers and diverse minds to tackle complex scientific challenges.
Andrew Rohl is a leading expert in the application of supercomputing and computer simulation technologies in materials chemistry and leads the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI). He has a long history in the development and application of advanced computing technology in Australia through establishing the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in 2012, the creation of the Curtin Institute for Data Science in 2015, and leading the ARC Training Centre for Transforming Maintenance through Data Science.
Abstract:
What are the critical horizons for eResearch in Australia and how do we position ourselves to meet the challenges of an uncertain future. eResearch is essential for Australia’s smart economy, which aims to increase prosperity and productivity. It underpins transformative fields like AI, quantum technology, nanofabrication, personalised medicine, synthetic biology and the space sector, and promises significant economic growth and job opportunities. Australia’s world-class digital research infrastructure, led by NCRIS, is a source of global envy. It supports crucial breakthroughs in fundamental research, helps develop cutting-edge applied research, facilitates industry adoption of R&D, and provides sovereign capability to address new opportunities and challenges. Through increased efficiency, it boosts productivity through strategic investments connecting academia, research institutions, government, publicly funded agencies, and industry and supports a strengthening of Australia’s research and development ecosystem for a ‘Future Made in Australia’. What are the key challenges we need to tackle, and how to, in an uncertain environment to meet the critical horizon projects/needs?