Researchers are generating a wealth of data on Australia’s environment, biodiversity and climate. These data present a valuable opportunity for research. However they are scattered across institutional repositories that lack interoperability. The inconsistency in content, granularity, data quality and governance protocols further complicate the matter. A significant challenge arises due to the absence of metadata, rendering many researchers unaware of the data, and hindering the translation of research into management and decision-making.
National consultation led by the ARDC in developing the Planet Research Data Commons indicated that research is being hampered by the ability to find and discover domain and discipline-related data.
The Planet Research Data Commons aims to improve access to FAIR environmental and climate data held in federated repositories through its Domain Data Portals program (DDP).
This program sits within the Planet RDC Focus Area 2 – FAIR and Integrated Data and Services, which will equip data stewards with the tools and capability to enable long-tail data to be made FAIR to enable integration for knowledge creation.
Phase one of the Domain Data Portals program involves collaborating with the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) community. NESP is Australia’s longest running environmental research program, into which DCCEEW has invested $149 million (2020 to 2027). Also in scope is collaborating with the NCRIS facility Australian Plant Phenomics Network (APPN) community.
The program will deliver a cohesive domain discovery of NESP and APPN research outputs in a domain portal within ARDC Research Data Australia (RDA).
The Domain Data Portal program will deliver flexible but robust discovery and aggregation of datasets across these institutional repositories by developing rich metadata records for every project output and have this metadata discoverable nationally. This will be achieved by leveraging host institutional infrastructure, generalist repositories and the ARDC investments in national data and informatics infrastructure, including data publishing services of ARDC RDA, ARDC Research Vocabularies Australia (RVA), persistent identifiers (PIDs), communication, skills uplift and engagement activities. These services will support the consistent adoption of community standards, enabling research outputs that are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR).
The Planet RDC is following a community co-design process to deliver its programs. The Planet RDC Program Description outlines the national consultation process and outcomes.
Through our 2022 national consultation and policy analysis we identified major national stakeholders and national priorities.
View the program guidelines for the Domain Data Portals program.
To learn more about collaborating with us on this program, please get in touch.
The Domain Data Portals program will deliver flexible but robust discovery and aggregation of NESP and APPN research outputs through nominated institutional repositories. This will be achieved by:
