A New Director Has Been Appointed for Planet Research Data Commons, Hamish Holewa

The ARDC is delighted to announce that Hamish Holewa has been appointed to the role of Director, Planet Research Data Commons.

In this exciting new role, Hamish will lead the Planet Research Data Commons (Planet RDC), which will address the digital research infrastructure needs for research challenges set out in the 2021 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap, including environment and climate resilience.

The Planet RDC for environmental research is the second of 2 pilot Thematic Research Data Commons (Thematic RDCs) launching in the 2022-23 financial year with an initial budget of $15.8m. The Thematic RDCs will be enduring initiatives, with the digital research infrastructure capabilities being sustained and enhanced over the long term.

The Planet RDC will support earth and environmental researchers to develop cross-sector and multi-disciplinary data collaborations on a national scale. It will integrate underpinning compute, storage infrastructure and services with analysis platforms and tools that are supported by expertise, standards and best practices. It will bring together data from a range of sources to tackle the big questions.

We’re taking a co-design approach to develop the Planet RDC through collaborative partnerships between research institutions, industry, government agencies and other relevant national stakeholders.

About Hamish Holewa

Hamish brings 15 years of experience focused on delivering research infrastructure that works at the intersection between government, research, data, and information technology within the environmental domain.

He has led and initiated multiple programs that address priority areas in the sector including biosecurity, data-to-decision programs, genomics, indigenous partnerships, multi-jurisdiction data sharing and Commonwealth government science programs. Hamish has a wealth of experience in leadership and strategy, IT operations, stakeholder liaison and partnership management. He is currently employed as Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Atlas of Living Australia, CSIRO.

Hamish will commence in his new role on 1 November 2022 and he has said “I am delighted to be joining the ARDC to lead this exciting new activity. The Thematic RDC initiative is going to be transformative for the research and innovation system and I’m looking forward to working with our community to make it a success.”

We would like to congratulate Hamish on his appointment and welcome him to the team.

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