Making Waves in Fisheries and Aquaculture Research with Research Link Australia

Our oceans hold more than just fish and coral reefs – they hold knowledge that underpins research vital to supporting Australia’s economy, environment, and food security. 

For over 30 years, the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) has been Australia’s key body responsible for planning and investing in research activities to support fishing and aquaculture. Over that time, the FRDC has funded more than 5,000 research projects, generating valuable insights that have helped inform sustainable fisheries practices, management, and marine conservation.  

However, the impact of this research depends on how easily it can be discovered, accessed and used.  

When information is hard to find, valuable findings go unused, research efforts are duplicated, and limited resources are used inefficiently. Ultimately, this slows down scientific progress.

“The cost of research – like the cost of living – is going up. We don’t have infinite resources. We need to do more with less,” said Kyaw Kyaw Soe Hlaing, FRDC’s General Manager of ICT and Digitalisation. “If we make information more readily available, that means research can be more targeted, have greater impact, and be done more quickly and efficiently.”

However, addressing this challenge requires a system that goes beyond storing research to also connect it. 

Research Link Australia: the Missing Link 

To bridge this gap, the ARDC has developed Research Link Australia (RLA) – a national platform designed to link researchers, industry and policymakers.  

Launched in 2024, RLA provides comprehensive data on Australia’s innovation ecosystem all in one place, connecting over 800,000 researchers, more than 88,000 funded activities, and over 300,000 organisations. The platform is designed for researchers looking for industry collaborators, policymakers seeking a clearer picture of national research capability, and businesses wanting to connect with researchers in specific domains.

“We need to think of research as a business – we are producing something and selling it. It just so happens that our product is knowledge, and we’re giving it away for free. But we shouldn’t be treating it any differently,” said Mr Soe Hlaing. “The internet and research spaces are crowded. So, how do you ensure valuable insights can be readily found? The first step is to make people aware that the research exists.” 

Better Inputs, Bigger Impact

While RLA has shown significant potential, its usefulness is only as strong as the information it contains. When metadata is incomplete or inconsistent, it becomes harder to correctly catalogue projects, track down relevant research, or see the full picture of who is working on what, where, and with whom. 

“Different sources will report things slightly differently. Some might tag researchers with an ORCiD number, but some might not. To bring this data together is hard, because they’re not standardised,” said Mr Soe Hlaing.

That’s why the ARDC is working with partners like the FRDC to improve the quality and consistency of information about data (metadata). It is part of the ARDC’s efforts to improve the overall quality of information on the RLA platform.

Sailing the Marine Knowledge Landscape: the ARDC-FRDC Collaboration

With over 400 active projects at any given time and more than 100 new projects commencing each year, the FRDC undertook a project called Sailing the Marine Knowledge Landscape with RLA. Supported by the ARDC, the project incorporated thousands of FRDC-funded projects into the RLA platform to make FRDC research more discoverable and visible within a broader national picture of research activity, and connects projects with their associated researchers, institutions, and outputs.

“As part of the project, we extracted data from our project management system as a live feed, known as an API [Application Programming Interface]. This means that RLA has real-time data and we don’t have to keep updating it every time,” said Mr Soe Hlaing. 

Outputs from the API are now being analysed using machine learning algorithms to understand gaps and overlaps in the research landscape.

By making data from FRDC-funded projects available alongside information from other universities and research organisations, the project is lowering barriers to access and painting a more complete picture of fisheries and aquaculture research across Australia. View the FRDC data in RLA.

A Model for Other Research Sectors 

As Australia continues to invest in fisheries and aquaculture research, the ability to connect, share and reuse knowledge is more important than ever. These efforts serve as a model for other Research Development Corporations (RDCs) who want to unlock the full value of their investments within the agricultural science community and beyond. 

“We already have RDCs that are interested in what we’ve done. Our project was a proof-of-concept for FRDC, but if it can be built in a scalable way that could be used for other RDCs, cooperative research centres, or universities, then that’s a win-win,” said Mr Soe Hlaing.

This collaboration shows what’s possible when research isn’t just collected, but connected. 

Explore research by FRDC in Research Link Australia and uncover the R&D ecosystem by searching for any topic in Research Link Australia. 

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