The Systemic Infrastructure Initiative was announced by the

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

in January 2001 as part of

Backing Australia's Ability Backing Australia's Ability (BAA) was a five-year innovation plan launched by the Howard Government in January 2001. Previous policy Previous policies for this group of portfolios under the Howard Government were: * ''Investing for Growth'', De ...

– ''An Innovation Action Plan for the Future''. The Government announced that $246 million would be allocated over five years "to upgrade the basic infrastructure of universities, such as scientific and research equipment, libraries and laboratory facilities" to support research and research training. Those eligible to apply are restricted to universities and other higher education institutions specified in Table A of the

Higher Education Support Act 2003 The ''Higher Education Support Act 2003'' (Cth) (HESA) is an Act of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia which governs funding for universities in Australia. The Act determines categories of providers eligible for public funding, estab ...

Bond University Bond University is Australia's first private not-for-profit university and is located in Robina, a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland. Since its founding on 15 May 1989, Bond University has primarily been a teaching-focused higher ed ...

and the

University of Notre Dame Australia The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) is a national Roman Catholic private university with campuses in and in Western Australia and Sydney in New South Wales. The university also has eight clinical schools as part of its school of med ...

Early committees

In 2002, as part of the SII funding, the Minister committed $250,000 to two committees, the ''Higher Education Information Infrastructure Implementation Steering Committee'' (HEIIAC) and ''Higher Education Bandwidth Advisory Committee'' (HEBAC). These committees were to formulae further broad projects to be considered for SII funding in the following year. Th
Final Report of the Higher Education Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee
was completed in November 2002.

Australian Research Information Infrastructure Committee

As part of SII the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Dr Brendan Nelson, MP established the ''Australian Research Information Infrastructure Committee'' (ARIIC) in August 2003 to advise the Government on the information infrastructure requirement

http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/programmes_funding/programme_categories/research_related_opportunities/systemic_infrastructure_initiative/sii_funded_projects.htm]

2002 round

* IMS Global Australia - Core Funding * IMS COLIS Testbed * Business Intelligence Lab (BIT Lab),

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

* Clinical Trial Data and Information Network, ''Flexetrials'',

NHMRC The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the main statutory authority of the Australian Government responsible for medical research. It was the eighth largest research funding body in the world in 2016, and NHMRC-funded res ...

Clinical Trials Centre,

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

* Australian Academic & Research Library Network,

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria an ...

* Joint Academic Scholarships On-line Network (JASON) * Dataset Acquisition, Accessibility and Annotation e-Research Technology Project (DART) *

BIAcore Biacore was a life science products company based in Sweden. In June 2006 Biacore was sold for $390 million and became a product brand under GE Healthcare life Sciences, which became Cytiva in April 2020. Biacore products measure biomolecular ...

3000 for Discovery & Characterisation of Novel Pharmaceuticals * Australian Research Libraries Collection Analysis Project *

Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing The Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC) was an Australian organisation established in 1998 to provide advanced computing and grid infrastructure for Australian research communities. APAC was established under the Systemic Infras ...

(APAC) 2004-2006 * Towards an Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR)

Facilities and equipment

* Acquisition of next generation instruments in micro- and nano-analysis of solids and fluids in the geosciences and materials sciences, located in a purpose designed shared lab located at

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

* High Sensitivity, High Accuracy

Mass Spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is use ...

for Advanced Molecular and Biomolecular Research,

* Establishment of a

nanofabrication Nanolithography (NL) is a growing field of techniques within nanotechnology dealing with the engineering (patterning e.g. etching, depositing, writing, printing etc) of nanometer-scale structures on various materials. The modern term reflects on a ...

facility at the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials at the

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (abbreviated as UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment of ...

* Establishment of an Advanced Materials Manufacturing and Performance Centre,

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia. Its main campuses are in Melbourne's Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, ...

* Provision of high through-put DNA analysing machines for Population Biology Research and Research Training at La Trobe, the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

and

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 ...

* Spatial and Sonological Information Laboratory,

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scienc ...

. Digital Design Precinct * Integrated Microfabrication Facility,

Swinburne University of Technology Swinburne University of Technology (often simply called Swinburne) is a public research university based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1908 as the Eastern Suburbs Technical College by George Swinburne to serve those without access ...

* Large Scale Experimental Building Fire Facility,

Victoria University of Technology Victoria University (VU or Vic Uni) is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is one of only six dual-sector universities in Australia, providing courses in both higher education and Technical and Further Educat ...

* Improvements to the equipment and instrumentation level of the

hypersonic In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that exceeds 5 times the speed of sound, often stated as starting at speeds of Mach 5 and above. The precise Mach number at which a craft can be said to be flying at hypersonic speed varies, since in ...

s facility at the

* A

SHRIMP Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

Ion Microprobe Facility for Earth Sciences,

Curtin University of Technology Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

* ACIGA-

LIGO The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Two large ...

High Optical Power Test Facility * 3D-Imaging of Intact Root Systems in soil,

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

* Upgrade of UV Radiation Monitoring Capabilities,

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College, one of the university's residential colleges, first pro ...

* Upgrade facilities at

Siding Spring Observatory Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a coll ...

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 ...

Network

Over the course of the SSI program, many improvements to the national backbone were funded: * Tasmanian Research and Education Network * Victoria Education and Research Network (VERN) * Marine Research and Education Network * Australian Research and Education Network (AREN) ** contribution towards accessing the AREN from the Charles Sturt University campuses at

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's la ...

and Bathurst ** interim solution (for 3 years) for high bandwidth connections from the Sunshine backbone to campuses in five regional centres in Queensland (JCU Cairns, CQU Mackay and Gladstone, USC Sippy Downs and USQ Hervey Bay) ** high bandwidth links between the AREN and Murdoch University's three campuses at South Street, Rockingham and Mandurah ** AREN Regional Light Up * 2.5 Gbit/s backbone network from

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairn ...

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

* South Australian Broadband Research and Education Network (SABRENet) *

AARNet AARNet (Australian Academic and Research Network) provides Internet services to the Australian education and research communities and their research partners. AARNet built the Internet in Australia. In 1995, the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Com ...

** improved broadband access from

to Sydney ** 155 Mbit/s link between Adelaide and

Charles Darwin University Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with a main campus in Darwin and eight satellite campuses in some metropolitan and regional areas. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Territory University, ...

** Contribution towards the cost of access from Australian Maritime College ** Dual 10 Gbit/s transpacific link to carry research and education traffic for an initial period of five years * 1Gb inter-university network in Adelaide over the

Electricity Trust of South Australia The Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) was the South Australian Government-owned monopoly vertically integrated electricity provider from 1946 until its privatisation in 1999. Precursors Early days (1882–1900) Charles Todd, an ea ...

bandwidth for 15 years * provide access to two fibre pairs on the

Nextgen Networks Nextgen Networks is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vocus Group, an Australian-based international telecommunications company. Nextgen's Network is based on a geographically protected national network, with the Brisbane to Melbourne link utilising ...

for the Australian higher education sector and wider research communityAARNet 20 Year Book Chapter 6
/ref>

FRODO projects

In 2003, ARIIC funded four ''Federated Repositories of Online Digital Objects'' (FRODO) project

Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories
(APSR)
Meta Access Management System Project
(MAMS

* Australian Repositories Online to the World, Australian Research Repositories Online to the World (ARROW)
Australian Digital Theses Program Expansion
(ADT)

MERRI projects

On 22 August 2005 the Hon Dr

Brendan Nelson Brendan John Nelson (born 19 August 1958) is a business leader and former Australian politician. He served as the federal Leader of the Opposition from 2007 to 2008, going on to serve as Australia's senior diplomat to the European Union and NA ...

announced funding for nine projects collectively known as the ''Managed Environments for Research Repository Infrastructure'' (MERRI) projects, involving over 30 Australian universities. The funded projects ar

BlueNet
Australian Marine Science Data Network

Mapping the Global Financial System
Molecular Medicine Informatics Model
(MMIM): A Multi-Institutional, Multi-disciplinary Research and Training Platform for Clinical Research
Australian Service for Knowledge of Open Source Software
(ASK-OSS)
Middleware Action Plan and Strategy
(MAPS)
Open Access to Knowledge
(OAK-LAW) (Legal Protocols for Copyright Management: Facilitating Open Access to Research at the National and International Levels (LPCM)) * EFR: e-Security Framework for Research, University of Queensland
Regional Universities Building Research Infrastructure Collaboratively
(RUBRIC)

References

Science and technology in Australia