The Australian National Data Service (ANDS), the National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project (NECTAR) and the Research Data Services (RDS) have combined to form the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC).
For the past 10 years Monash has led ANDS in partnership with the Australian National University and CSIRO.
In this transition year — as ANDS becomes ARDC — Monash, Melbourne and Queensland Universities will jointly lead the ARDC.
The ARDC will meet the needs of data-intensive, cross-disciplinary and global collaborative research by continuing to make Australia’s research data assets more valuable for researchers and research institutions.
This new, broader approach builds on each branch's key capabilities:
- Improved research data delivered by ANDS
- National data services and storage provided by RDS
- Cloud computing, virtual laboratories and collaborative tools provided by NeCTAR.
ANDS Executive Director Dr Ross Wilkinson said thanks to strong government commitment and vision, Australia today has a world-leading role in research data and research data capacity. Research institutions have more research data management capacity than five years ago.
"From grappling with a data management problem, Australian researchers now have an ability to use a stronger, richer set of data assets for more data intensive research," he said.
"Through ANDS’s partnerships with most Australian research institutions, we have led a major lift in system capacity to create, manage, use and publish research data," Dr Wilkinson said.
The ARDC will continue to drive leadership, partnerships and international engagement strategies to transform Australian research data and capacity.
