The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) welcomes the Australian Government’s commitment to national research infrastructure, with $38.78 million invested through the Department of Education’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) set to strengthen the ARDC’s delivery of digital research infrastructure.
ARDC CEO Rosie Hicks celebrated the outcome, saying, “Realising the full potential of data for research requires sustained resourcing and national collaboration. This investment enables the ARDC to continue working closely with our partners, developing and delivering digital infrastructure that meets the needs of the Australian research community.”
Four activities were funded through the 2025 Step Change Round:
A Connected, Ethical and AI-Ready Data Ecosystem for Australian Research Excellence will embed FAIR and CARE principles across national information infrastructure, harnessing AI to improve data curation, metadata generation and interoperability at scale.
Community Data Lab (CDL) Expansion to Increase GLAM Data Use will strengthen data accessibility and curation across cultural institutions, building digital analytics capabilities and researcher capacity to support groundbreaking HASS and Indigenous research.
Digital Research Skills for the NCRIS Workforce will build the digital research expertise needed to support Australian researchers’ use of cutting-edge infrastructure and keep pace with emerging technologies.
Open Science at the Australian Bureau of Statistics: a FAIR and Free Accessibility Program will improve researcher access to world-class integrated microdata to unlock the full value of ABS data.
Through the 2026 Capability Gap Round, the Australian Government also confirmed further funding for the ARDC’s Planet Research Data Commons, which provides national-scale data infrastructure for earth and environmental science research and decision making.
These investments represent significant progress for Australian digital research infrastructure. The ARDC looks forward to continuing to work closely with other NCRIS facilities, the research community and industry, building leading-edge digital research infrastructure to provide Australian researchers with competitive advantage through data.
For the full funding results, visit the Department of Education’s website.
