The E-Research Institutional Cloud Architecture (ERICA) platform provides a secure, customisable, cloud-based computing environment for researchers using sensitive data.
ERICA, an orchestration framework (infrastructure as code,) offers significant advantages over secure data enclave models that use fixed computing infrastructure. It leverages the rich services and scalability of a premier commercial cloud provider (AWS), permitting researchers to use a wide range of operating system and workspace configurations, including customised, current-generation high performance and high-throughput computing resources. The ERICA platform boosts international collaboration by allowing shared access to data resources by collaborating researchers located in other countries while still supporting the on-shore-only data sovereignty requirements of Australian data custodians.

Core features


Who is this project for?
- Research organisations
- Researchers
- Research Students
- Infrastructure providers
- Government (state and commonwealth)
What does this project enable?
The ERICA platform will support researchers who use sensitive microdata (such as participant-level data) across fields including medical and health, justice, housing, education, disability, social services, and child protection. It supports increasing demand for access to large-scale cross-sectoral data to generate ‘real world evidence’ while minimising the risk of privacy, security and confidentiality breaches.
Handy resources
- Visit the ERICA website
- Visit the UNSW Centre for Big Data Research in Health