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The ANU Supercomputer Facility (ANUSF) hosted a campus-wide eResearch forum on 31 October. The forum focused on how ANU researchers are exploring new research techniques that take advantage of powerful online resources and shared software environments.

Researchers from a range of disciplines described how they are using these techniques to attain an edge in their research. Many projects were able to make advances by establishing collaborations with ANUSF as part of its expanding role in supporting research beyond the traditional computational science based projects. ANUSF is keen to collaborate with researchers across many disciplines to explore how these powerful practises may be adapted to their specific needs.

Dr Ben Evans, Head of ANUSF, spoke about the growth of eResearch and its importance in connecting ANU researchers to their global research communities.

“The world-wide growth in eResearch has been explosive. Many internationally recognised projects rely heavily on eResearch methods and in many cases these methods help to enable projects that were previously unachievable. In Australia the benefits of these practises are recognised with eResearch being integrated into programs initiated by the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC) and the ARC eResearch Special Research Initiative. They are now being adopted into national research strategy such as DEST’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).”

The forum also heard about the future of eResearch at ANU, including a discussion of the establishment of a specialised eResearch Centre. Prof. Jim Williams, Chair of the ANU eResearch Task Force, said that ANU needs to focus on ways to better harness and coordinate its eResearch resources. The eResearch Task Force has made a number of recommendations for how such a change may be implemented.