Improving Indigenous Research Capabilities – Co-Design Workshops

About the Event

Important: the co-design workshop has 2 parts, and we hope you can participate in both sessions – you will need to register for each separately. 

The sessions will be recorded if you are unable to join, and there will be opportunities to contribute to shaping the program outside the workshops.

The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) invites the research community to join 2 workshops to co-design a national research infrastructure project that will support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers, organisations and communities across Australia.

The new program is part of the ARDC’s HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons, which is establishing long-term, enduring national digital research infrastructure to support researchers to harness research data to enhance Australian social and cultural wellbeing, and help understand and preserve our culture, history and heritage.

Last year, the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons was awarded $25 million from the Australian Government’s 2023 National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Funding Round, which is in addition to the the $8.9 million received from NCRIS to establish the HASS and Indigenous RDC, which was launched in 2021.

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. 

In this workshop, we seek input from the HASS and Indigenous research community to co-design the programs and projects that will meet the digital infrastructure needs of researchers now and in the future.

The HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons is committed to enabling capable people, effective institutions, innovative technology, relevant data and collaborative governance with the aim of elevating research capability in the HASS and Indigenous research sectors.

About the research infrastructure program

Representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers, organisations and communities across Australia, this program will build and extend on the work of national and international frameworks of Indigenous Data Governance (IDG) and Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDS) to collectively strengthen the foundations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander data governance principles. 

This program is the next phase of the ARDC-supported Improving Indigenous Research Capabilities program, which began in 2022.

This next phase of the Improving Indigenous Research Capability program will build and extend on the foundational Indigenous research data tools and infrastructure developed in the first phase of the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons. It will continue to build an Indigenous research capability program that celebrates, supports and enhances the capabilities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and researchers at the interface of research data science and Indigenous knowledge systems. This aligns with the commitment of the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons to enable capable people, effective institutions, innovative technology, relevant data and collaborative governance with the aim of elevating research capability in the HASS and Indigenous research sectors, 

The project will work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander data custodians, focusing on how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities engage with, and what they aspire for, in the governance of their data.

The ARDC’s co-design process for developing national research infrastructure

We seek to develop infrastructure that creates the greatest impact for research and researchers by co-designing that infrastructure with the people who will benefit from it. Co-design will involve a wide range of stakeholders with different experience and expertise. Our aim is to include all the perspectives necessary to allow a consideration of specific researcher needs, balanced by relative needs and priorities, and what is practically possible to address.

We will be holding 2 open co-design workshops to better understand the current challenges to improve Indigenous research capabilities. We will discuss the investment opportunity that ARDC has identified, with the aim of learning: 

• what outcomes and developments would be of most benefit 
• what will be both valuable and feasible
• how our investments can align with other activity in the sector. 

Workshop participants are expected to actively participate in discussions. We encourage participants to attend both workshops if possible. A summary of the discussions will be made available after each workshop. 

The process we will follow is described in the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Co-Design Framework, and is based on established methods such as the TACSI Co-Design Framework. Development of our co-investment activities will follow these steps: 

1. Problem Identification
2. Project Shaping
3. Project Planning
4. Endorsement. 

The Problem Identification and Project Shaping phases will be conducted through open co-design workshops. We will seek community feedback on the draft project plan, and the final plan will be reviewed by the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Advisory Panel prior to endorsement.

The planned work will be delivered as a contracted co-investment activity. The ARDC will enter into a single 4-year contract with the lead organisation, who will sub-contract external partner organisations on the project team as required.

Who will be speaking?

• Jenny Fewster, Director, HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons, ARDC
• Professor Marcia Langton AO, Associate Provost, Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies, Co-Chair Indigenous Data Network, University of Melbourne
• Associate Professor Kristen Smith, Indigenous Data Network, University of Melbourne
• Levi Murray, Indigenous Data Network, University of Melbourne

Who should attend?

• HASS and Indigenous research community, including academics, researchers and citizen scientists, particularly those involved in data-driven research
• managers of Indigenous data
• senior decision makers at research, GLAM and Indigenous institutions, industry and NGOs
• those who collect and manage data for use by research
• research infrastructure providers and digital skills trainers

What participants will gain from the session? 

• Learn about the program and partnership opportunities
• Contribute your use cases and experience to shape the development of infrastructure for Indigenous research

Join more ARDC co-design workshops

This program is one of a series of co-design workshops we’re running in February and March 2024 for the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons.

Please also consider registering for:

• Creative Arts
• Media(ted) Data
• Language Data Commons of Australia.

Further ARDC resources

• HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons
• Resources for HASS and Indigenous research

Will the session be recorded?

Yes, the session will be recorded, provided to all registrants and published online.

Have questions?

Email [email protected]

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Please note that this event may be recorded and published by the ARDC. This may include your contributions during the session. ARDC respects the privacy of individuals. Information collected is in accordance with the ARDC Privacy Policy.

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