Growing the ARDC Planet Research Data Commons

The ARDC welcomes investment from the Australian Government’s 2023 National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Funding Round to grow the Planet Research Data Commons (Planet RDC), which adds to the initial NCRIS funding.

The Planet RDC is establishing national-scale data infrastructure for earth and environmental research and decision making. It will enable seamless access to data and digital infrastructure across multiple science domains, including biodiversity, ecology, earth sciences, agriculture, biosecurity and climate adaptation to meet the current and emerging research needs.

Hamish Holewa, Director, Planet RDC, said, “We welcome the further investment in the Planet RDC from the Australian Government, which recognises the need to integrate across research domains to provide digital infrastructure that accelerates research to help Australia face significant environmental challenges.”

“The pressing global scientific and human issues of the 21st century can ONLY be addressed through research that works across disciplines to understand complex systems, and which uses interdisciplinary and trans disciplinary approaches to turn data into knowledge and then into action. The Planet RDC is providing the infrastructure and interoperability to connect data across disciplines.

“The Planet RDC is partnering across academia, research facilities, government and industry. Our goal is to tackle 4 data challenges that have been identified through comprehensive consultations with the research community. By addressing these data challenges, we aim to enhance the translation of data into knowledge, which will help Australia understand and manage the environment more effectively. The initiatives we are implementing will provide us with a deeper understanding of the cumulative impacts of multiple pressures on the environment. Furthermore, they will help Australia in managing critical mineral exploration and transitioning to renewable energy more efficiently.”

The 4 data challenge areas will be integrated through broad use cases for the data infrastructure needs of government, research and industry in selected regions of national priority.

The ARDC is currently establishing partnerships to develop projects with 2 data challenges:

The ARDC is also leading consultations to develop projects around the further 2 data challenges:

integrated FAIR datasets and services
Indigenous data, CARE and skills.

Thematic Research Data Commons for Enduring Digital Infrastructure

The Planet RDC is one of 3 national-scale Thematic Research Data Commons established by the ARDC in partnership with the research community. The Thematic Research Data Commons are designed to meet Australia’s future research needs with long-term, enduring digital infrastructure. The new funding from the Australian Government will be invested through the ARDC’s co-design and co-investment approach to building digital research infrastructure.

Each Thematic Research Data Commons integrates the ARDC’s underpinning compute, storage infrastructure and services with analysis platforms and tools. Each is supported by our expertise, and our work on developing community-agreed standards and best practices.

These coordinated, structured, and complementary activities are building data assets, tools, and skills that will constitute a national ‘knowledge infrastructure’ that enables Australian researchers to transform our lives.

The new funding from the Australian Government will be invested through the ARDC’s co-design and co-investment approach to building digital research infrastructure.

Learn more and get involved by registering your interest in the Planet Research Data Commons.

Learn about the 2 other research data commons:

People Research Data Commons for health and medical research
Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) and Indigenous Research Data Commons.

The ARDC is funded through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) to support national digital research infrastructure for Australian researchers.