In 2025, the ARDC’s People Research Data Commons (People RDC) launched 5 new projects, established a community of practice and built new partnerships to address the data challenges facing Australian health and medical researchers. We also connected with the research community at recent conferences, including International Data Week, eResearch Australasia, ACTA and AIMOS – thank you to everyone who engaged with us there!
This program is empowering health and medical researchers through national initiatives that integrate and standardise health data. We launched the Australian Health Data Evidence Network (AHDEN) in October, a collaborative initiative to make hospital medical records research-ready by leveraging the OMOP Common Data Model. AHDEN represents a significant step toward national-scale harmonisation and analytics with participation from QLD, SA, ACT, NSW, and VIC. Read more below
Health Studies Australian National Data Asset (HeSANDA)
HeSANDA provides services, tools and resources to improve access to health research data. Health Data Australia continues to grow, with more clinical trial datasets added and increasing requests to share data. We’re expanding Health Data Australia to include cohorts data – stay tuned for an announcement soon! Also, a new feature is now in beta on Health Data Australia that shows search results from the UK. This feature was created in partnership with Health Data Research UK (HDRUK) and is still in testing, so we’ll share more about it in the new year. We continue to work on the policy and culture frame for health studies data sharing with work on data sharing frameworks, adoption of the consent template, and a burgeoning community of practice for secondary data users.
We’re building on our national framework and promoting shared understanding for TREs – secure platforms that enable researchers to access and analyse sensitive data without compromising privacy.
We’ve launched Unlock, a new Community of Practice for those interested in TREs – see details below.
Advanced Analytics in Healthcare
This program is building national-scale analytics infrastructure for health research and translation. We recently launched the Advanced Analytics and AI Resource Hub, which will provide researchers with access to AI tools, training and infrastructure to support responsible, advanced analytics in health research.
We have kicked off the Federated Machine Learning Project, and work is underway to build national capability for secure, distributed health data analysis. Learn more below.
Two projects are underway to improve access to government health data:
The ARDC and AIHW have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work towards a long term partnership that improves data-driven health and medical research.
Stay tuned for exciting announcements on our work enabling researcher access with the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Digital Health Agency.
NCRIS FAIR Data and Secure Access
We’re partnering with National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) facilities to make research data FAIR and securely accessible. Our first project, with Phenomics Australia, will improve discovery of preclinical model data across Australia – read more below.
The ARDC has also been on the policy front foot with submissions to the National Health and Medical Research Strategy, the draft of which highlights the need for national data infrastructure (including ARDC’s Health Data Australia).
Read on for the latest news, opportunities, events and resources for health and medical research.
Please encourage your colleagues to register their interest in the People Research Data Commons to receive regular updates.
Kind regards,
Dr Adrian Burton
Director, People Research Data Commons
ARDC
We’re improving the ARDC website and are seeking researchers to help us make it more useful for Australia’s research community.
What’s involved?
Who can participate?
Researchers from all disciplines, at HDR, ECR and MCR level, from metropolitan and regional areas. Whether you use ARDC services or have never used them before, we want to hear from you. Submit your EOI >
The Australian Data Research Commons (ARDC), in collaboration with the Australian Data Science Network, is inviting health and medical researchers, clinicians and practitioners to take part in a national survey on digital research infrastructure needs.
Your insights will help inform a comprehensive framework to support advanced analytics, secure access to health data, training and capability development and governance considerations across Australia’s health research ecosystem.
If you work with health data or advanced analytics, we’d love to hear from you.
Please complete the survey by Friday 19 December 2025.
As the demand for high-quality secondary use of health data continues to grow, we’re committed to supporting a connected and informed community.
We’re bringing together researchers, clinicians and health professionals working with secondary health data to strengthen collaboration, share knowledge and build capability across the sector.
If you are already working with secondary health data or are seeking to learn more, we welcome you to be part of our community.
This short 5-10 minute survey is your opportunity to tell us about your work, share what you have planned, and help shape how the ARDC can best support this emerging community.
The NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre at the University of Sydney, in collaboration with Sydney Health Partners is inviting clinical researchers to participate in a study examining the barriers and enablers to sharing clinical trial data. This is part of the ARDC’s HeSANDA program. The survey closes at the end of February 2026.
Learn more and take the survey.
Read the latest edition INSPIRE magazine focusing on data and digital health to read 2 articles from the ARDC. In The Last Word, our CEO Rosie Hicks reflects on the immense potential of health data to improve outcomes for millions of Australians – and the essential role of coordinated national infrastructure and governance in realising that promise.
In ‘Simplifying Consent for Health and Medical Research’, Mark Maclean and Jo Savill share how a new, simplified participant information and consent form (PICF) template is improving how participants engage with health and medical research studies in Australia, and enabling data sharing to improve Australians’ health through research. The template was developed by CT:IQ in partnership with ARDC and a multidisciplinary project team. The PICF is now being used by NSW Health, SA Health’s Southern Adelaide Local Health Network (SALHN), Bellberry and others.
The ARDC welcomes the NHMRC’s commitment to strengthening Australia’s Persistent Identifier (PID) system. Announced in its recent newsletter, NHMRC will require ORCID IDs for all chief investigators and ROR identifiers for all administering organisations, amongst other PID activities. Learn more about the ARDC-led Australian National Persistent Identifier (PID) Strategy and Roadmap.
The Australian Child and Youth Wellbeing Atlas has been refreshed with new features, enhanced data tools, and improved design, making it easier than ever to explore child and youth wellbeing data across Australia. The ARDC is thrilled to see the Atlas continue to grow following our partnership to establish the platform. The interactive data asset is providing insights that are improving the health and wellbeing of Australians. Read the impact stories and explore the Atlas.
The recent release of the NHMRC draft strategy aims to build on Australia’s strengths in health and medical research and leverage Australia’s world leading research capability. The draft strategy calls for a bigger focus on data, highlighting the ARDC’s HeSANDA program and Health Data Australia.
A recent report from DHCRC highlighted the importance of Health Data Australia in making the national health data system more coordinated and easier to navigate for researchers. The report states, “HDA has the potential to operate as the national federated discovery and access layer for Australia’s health and medical data, complementing existing national assets such as the AIHW National Health Data Hub.”
3 – 4 Feb
HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Summer School 2026
23 – 25 Jun
23 – 25 Jun
Read a selection of recent health and medical-related journal papers acknowledging ARDC services and ARDC-supported platforms and data assets. When you acknowledge the ARDC, you support our ongoing sustainability.
Yung et al. Sharing and reuse of mental health research data: Introducing the HeSANDA mental health node, Australasian Psychiatry.
Chlap et al. Implementation of an automated contour quality assurance tool within the TROG 18.01 NINJA trial, Radiotherapy and Oncology.
Nguyen et al. Complex pathways to ceftolozane-tazobactam resistance in clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates: a genomic epidemiology study, Clinical Microbiology and Infection.
Masson-Trottier et al. Toward the future of scientific publishing through reproducible research artefacts enabled by Neurodesk. Aperture Neuro.
Sparrow et al. The Australian and New Zealand Massive Transfusion Registry: An innovation focusing on data collection, standardisation and interoperability between healthcare systems. Health Information Management Journal.
Andrews et al. Factors associated with a positive shock index in the prehospital setting after major trauma. Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine.
This update was sent to those who registered their interest in the People Research Data Commons. To register for updates, please complete the form below.
