Driving community engagement with National Research Infrastructures
Melissa Burke 5, Fathima Haseen2, Aditi Subramanya2, Emma Joughin4, Ann Backhaus2, Sarah Thomas6,Kerry Mora6 Jo Condon7, Kathryn Unsworth3 David Poger8 Aidan Heerdegen1 Kelsey Druken1 Natalia Bateman1, Roger Edberg1
1Australian Earth System Simulator (ACCESS-NRI), Canberra, ACTON, ACT, Australia
2Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, Perth, WA, Australia
3Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), Sydney, NSW, Australia
4AURIN, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
5Australian BioCommons, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
6Australian Access Federation (AAF), Brisbane, QLD, Australia
7AuScope, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
8Microscopy Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Abstract
Research infrastructures support researchers, communities, decision makers and other users by providing access to tools, data, software, technology, facilities and technical expertise.
In Australia, there are more than 25 national research infrastructure projects that range across astronomy, biodiversity, geoscience, marine science, climate science, health, data and digital facilities and more.
These infrastructures are enabled by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) and other funding schemes.
Engagement and training are at the heart of research infrastructures, as they are essential activities to connect users and technical experts and improve the visibility of the services they offer to the wider Australasian research community.
This Birds of a Feather (BoF) style session aims to bring together people from across e-research infrastructures to discuss community engagement best practices, unique challenges and opportunities in communication, training and engagement.
Depending on ‘upvoting’ by session attendees, topics for discussion may include:
-What are the roles engagement and training play in building the communities of users and developers in each of our infrastructures and encourage community participation, or two-way exchange of feedback?
-What has made for successful and not-so-successful engagement and training approaches for research infrastructures?
-What collaboration opportunities exist among organisations to maximise engagement and training efforts?
-How can we be innovative and modernise our engagement and training activities?
As a key outcome of this session, we will establish a support network in the form of a bi-monthly meeting to move forward what was discussed.
Biography
Natalia Bateman, Australian Earth System Simulator (ACCES-NRI)
Natalia is the Outreach and Engagement Manger at the Australian Earth System Simulator (ACCESS-NRI). She is responsible for communicating and engaging with the ACCESS-NRI audiences including the ACCESS community, end-users, government, and the public.
Natalia is a biologist from the National University of Colombia and obtained a Masters by Research in History and Philosophy of Science in 2003 from the University of Sydney. Then she run out with the Shell Questacon Circus for a year, completing a Graduate Diploma in Science communication in 2006. Since 2008 she has been working in science communication, initially at CSIRO and then at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis.
Melissa Burke (Australian BioCommons)
Melissa is the Training and Communications Officer for Australian BioCommons. She has many years of experience in developing and delivering face-to-face and online training in bioinformatics with Australian BioCommons and EMBL-EBI. She is an active member of international working groups on bioinformatics training and has a particular interest in FAIR training.
Doris Harrison is a Skills Development Lead focussing on NCRIS partners working within the Skilled Workforce Team at the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). A generalist with a background in IT and Partnering across a wide variety of sectors, Doris has previously supported researchers by developing and running a Community Program at UNSW with the purpose of upskilling the research community and fostering collaboration. Doris is a passionate supporter of ResBaz having been involved in the delivery of ResBaz Sydney from 2019 until 2021.