Carpentries Partnership for Australia to Uplift Digital Research Skills

A new partnership between 10 Australian research institutions will train instructors in The Carpentries, a proven method for teaching digital research skills to researchers.
A person at a computer with another person giving them instructions

We are pleased to announce a new partnership between 10 Australian research institutions to train instructors in The Carpentries digital research skills. The partnership will be announced today at the ARDC Digital Research Skills Summit, part of the eResearch Australasia conference.

The partnership is one of the largest in the world, and gives research institutions of all sizes in Australia access to instructor training for The Carpentries at a reduced rate in 2022.

“The Carpentries is a proven method for effectively teaching digital research skills to researchers. Training in digital research skills will ensure Australian researchers can use and manipulate data to do cutting-edge research,” said Kathryn Unsworth, Manager of the ARDC Skilled Workforce team.

“The ARDC is proud to be coordinating the partnership, and welcomes more Australian research institutions to join and access the discounted instructor training.”

The Carpentries is an international organisation that teaches foundational coding and data science skills to researchers worldwide.

Thanks to the partnership, the ARDC will coordinate a number of instructor training workshops during 2022. Through a 2-day workshop, instructors will be equipped to teach data, software and library carpentries.

Instructors can be researchers, librarians, research support staff or research computing support staff.

Al Obayuwana, Director of Partnerships at The Carpentries, said: “At The Carpentries we are all about creating access and opportunity. We are pleased to support ARDC in this goal of providing affordable training to diverse communities of researchers in Australia. Anytime we are able to work with community leaders that are looking to accelerate research and innovation in a scalable way, we get excited! Congratulations on the Skills Summit turnout and looking forward to the next steps together.”

David Groenewegen, Director of Academic Services at the Monash University Library, said: “The Carpentries are a great organisation and we have found their teaching model to be really useful. With this new partnership we are getting the flexibility we need to share and expand this model across the country, for the benefit of all. Big thanks go to the ARDC for making this happen.”

The 10 partners include national infrastructure providers and universities of all sizes. They are:

  • ARDC (Coordinator)
  • AARNet
  • Curtin University
  • Intersect
  • Monash University
  • National Computational Infrastructure (NCI)
  • Pawsey Supercomputing Centre
  • QCIF
  • University of Newcastle
  • University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Matthias Liffers, coordinator of The Carpentries partnership for Australia and certified Trainer of The Carpentries said: “Learning digital research skills is hard. The Carpentries methodology acknowledges that and provides a judgement-free environment that sets learners up for success.”

To find out more about joining the partnership, please contact the ARDC.

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