ARDC National Skills Forums

The Challenge

Australian researchers, data custodians and the national digital research infrastructure (NDRI) workforce need digital research skills to ensure a competitive edge.

In addition to the annual ARDC Skills Summit for trainers, the community has asked for more regular touchpoints to support ongoing learning and collaboration. Although individual training communities share their challenges within their groups, there is a need for sector-wide discussion and sharing.

The Response

Hosted by the ARDC’s Skilled Workforce Development team, the ARDC National Skills Forums are monthly open assemblies for digital research skills trainers and practitioners to have public, sector-wide conversations.

The forum creates opportunities for researcher trainers to discuss current topics in the practice of training researchers in data and software skills. The purpose is to facilitate knowledge exchange across the trainer community, and showcase digital research skills development activities, resources and best practice across the sector. 

We focus on the practice of data, software and research infrastructure skills training in Australia.  We invite researchers and professionals to share initiatives, programs and resources for skilled workforce development. The forums may:

• inform the trainer researcher community of skills development activities or resources arising from the ARDC’s Skilled Development Workforce team
• showcase training initiatives to promote researchers’ effective use of ARDC and NCRIS infrastructure
• enable trainers to leverage connections between local and international efforts 
• demonstrate how to use the platforms, infrastructure and resources the ARDC provides and those arising from ARDC partner projects, such as Health Data Australia, the Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA), and Digital Research Skills Australasia (DReSA).

To learn about and join upcoming forums as registration opens, register your interest and view our event listings.

Who Will Benefit

The research training community spans universities, public research organisations, medical research institutes, and research infrastructure providers from industry and government. We are open to anyone with an interest in digital research skills training. This includes people who train researchers and broader stakeholders  invested in digital skills uplift in research, such as:

• researchers who are trainers
• training managers who train researchers
• national digital research infrastructure workforce

Depending on the topic, the forums may also benefit specialist audiences like:

• research software engineers (RSEs)
• NCRIS and compute facilities staff
• researchers who coach and mentor peers and colleagues
• higher-degree research (HDR) supervisors
• HDR students.