Ms Gin Tan1, Kathryn Unsworth6, Juliana Villa-Ortiz1, Dr. Sara King7, A/Proc Nic Geard2, Dr. Danny Meloncelli3, Dr. Maciej Cytowski4, Dr. Gordon McDonald5
1Monash University, Australia, 2University of Melbourne, Australia, 3Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation (QCIF), Australia, 4Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, Australia, 5University of Sydney, Australia, 6Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), Australia, 7Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet), Australia
Biography:
Gin Tan is the Associate Director of Monash eResearch. She began her career in both enterprise and research computing, eventually finding her true passion in high-performance computing (HPC).Over the past eight years at Monash University, Gin has been instrumental in the development and deployment of a new HPC cluster, and has since grown into a technical leadership role. She enjoys diving deep into the technical aspects of her work while also excelling at translating complex needs into practical, effective solutions.
Dr Sara King is the Training and Engagement Lead for AARNet. She is focused on outreach within the research sector, developing communities of interest around training and skills development, especially infrastructure and digital literacies.
A/Prof Nic Geard is the Director of the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform at the University of Melbourne, focused on the provision of collaborative, interdisciplinary support for digital and data-led research.
Dr Danny Meloncelli is the Head of Skills Development at QCIF Ltd, overseeing the development and delivery of courses that equip researchers with critical skills in coding, statistics, data management and bioinformatics.
Maciej Cytowski is a computational scientist and expert in high-performance computing and data science. He specialises in designing and implementing computational strategies for complex scientific problems, particularly in fields like computational physics, computational biology, weather, climate, and artificial intelligence. Currently, he is the Head of Scientific Services at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Perth, Western Australia.
Dr Gordon McDonald leads the Informatics Team at the University of Sydney’s Sydney Informatics Hub, which supports researchers through data science, AI, bioinformatics, statistics and HPC services and training. He works at the intersection of technology and strategy, helping build sustainable, future-ready research infrastructure. Gordon is particularly focused on national-scale research tools, and creating teams that can meet the changing demands of data-intensive research together with our NCRIS partners such as the Australian Biocommons and the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility.
Juliana Villa is the Research Community Specialist at Monash eResearch. She works closely with researchers to understand their digital and infrastructural challenges and to support their evolving needs. With over a decade of experience in project management, customer engagement, and stakeholder relations across both the Australian research and international education sectors, Juliana brings a strategic and people-focused approach to her work. Her expertise includes strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, governance, and cross-sector collaboration.
Kathryn leads the Skilled Workforce Development team at the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). Her role involves driving a nationally coordinated approach to digital research skills initiatives, targeting areas of the workforce that conduct, underpin, and enable data-intensive research, including researchers (users of DRI) and the DRI workforce (providers of DRI). She guides and facilitates the ARDC Skills team in identifying, evaluating and scoping skills development opportunities, then planning and implementing their delivery in alignment with and support for the ARDC’s strategic priorities and activities, which encompass the thematic Research Data Commons, national cloud, national information infrastructure and national leadership in Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) skills.
Abstract:
Hiring and retaining top talent in the digital research infrastructure has never been more challenging. With industry giants offering attractive salaries and benefits, how can we, research infrastructure providers supporting research, compete in the current market? More importantly, how do we build a pipeline of skilled professionals who understand the unique challenges and requirements of digital research infrastructure?
Outcome 1 of Australia’s National Digital Research Infrastructure (NDRI) Strategy highlights that by 2030, the Australian NDRI system should be supported by structured training frameworks for both researchers and the National Research Infrastructure (NRI) workforce. It calls for a coordinated and consistent approach to help NDRI providers expand training opportunities in relevant digital skills, not only for their users but also for their own staff, as a means to address ongoing skills gaps and workforce shortages.
This session proposes a multi-institutional collaboration, bringing together managers, engineers, and trainers working across digital research computing and infrastructure development and delivery. Together, participants will explore practical, scalable strategies for talent development. The aim is to co-design a collaborative and sustainable 12-month action plan to attract, train, and retain the next generation of digital research infrastructure professionals.