The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) is a

limited company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by ...

, formed on 1 July 2018 by combining the Australian National Data Service (ANDS), Nectar (National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources) and Research Data Services (RDS). Its purpose is to enable Australian researchers and industry access to nationally significant eInfrastructure, skills platforms, and data collections. ANDS was established in 2008 in order to help address the challenges of storing, managing and making accessible Australia's research data. It was a joint collaboration between

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

The Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and i ...

and

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

. It manages Research Data Australia, a

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which enables access to data from over 100 Australian research organisations, cultural institutions, and government agencies. Nectar was established in 2009 by the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

, with the project directorate to establish the IT infrastructure at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

created in 2011. The Research Data Services project provides service development for prioritised areas of research, and continuing operational support of the IT infrastructure which accesses the data in the national collections.

ANDS and Research Data Australia

A project led by

in collaboration with the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

(ANU) and

created the basis for full ANDS implementation. The aim was to allow researchers "to identify, locate, access and analyse any available research data", by transforming the large number of scattered and disparate collections around Australia into a cohesive and accessible body of resources, with the importance of eResearch Infrastructure to Australian future research competitiveness emphasised as a prime reason. Funding was provided through the Australian Government's National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), as part of a funding agreement between the

Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research The Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (also called DIISR), was a department of the Australian Government that existed between December 2007 and December 2011. The Department was charged with further developing gro ...

(DIISR) and

in September 2008. In mid-2009 ANDS was further funded by the Education Investment Fund (EIF) for the establishment of the Australian Research Data Commons under the Australian Government’s Super Science Initiative. Research Data Australia (formerly the ANDS Collections Registry), ANDS' most significant service, is a

which enables access to data from over 100 Australian research organisations, cultural institutions, and government agencies. The Online Research Collections Australia (ORCA) Registry was the software utility that drove the ANDS Collections Registry, which was precursor to Research Data Australia. They were all used as names for the online discovery service run by ANDS, which allows researchers to publicise the existence of their research data and enables prospective users of that data to find it. Research Data Australia made use of the

ISO 2146 ISO 2146 is an ISO standard defining an information model for "registry services for libraries and related organisations". Operating at a higher level than item-level standards such as MARC, it takes as principal elements ''parties'' (people or org ...

-based RIF-CS metadata standard.

Research Data Services

The Research Data Services project is a continuation of the Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI).

Nectar

The National Collaboration Tools and Resources project, or Nectar, was established in 2009 by the Australian Government with a budget, as part of the "Super Science" initiative, financed by the Education Investment Fund (EIF). Since then it has received more government funding, as well as a similar investment by Australian universities and research institutions. The project got off the ground in 2011 at the University of Melbourne. It partners with other research communities to develop and manage 12 virtual laboratories, 16 e-research tools, and the 50,000 core National Research Cloud, known as the Nectar Cloud, with approximately 20,000 users.

Australian Research Data Commons

The three organisations created an aligned set of investments and business plans in 2017/8 in order to integrate their work in line with the 2016 National Research Infrastructure (NCRIS) Roadmap, created for the Department of Education and Training. Source pag
here
Monash University remains the lead agent of ANDS, University of Queensland the lead agent of RDS, and University of Melbourne the lead agent of Nectar.

References

External links