Projects initiated under the Skilled Workforce Discovery Activities aim to understand the bigger picture around supply and demand of research support professionals, such as data stewards and research software engineers, with a focus on the benefits of improving career pathways.
The Skilled Workforce Program is part of the ARDC’s second strategic theme People and Policy: Transforming culture and community. Discovery projects conducted under the Skilled Workforce Program aim to contribute to answer the following questions:
- What is the current size of the research support professional workforce in Australia?
- What is the future demand for the research support professional workforce in Australia?
Two reports are now available that address these issues:
- Surveying the scale of the research-IT support workforce [PDF, 269 KB], by Dr Markus Buchhorn. This report analyses the result of the first national survey on the workforce involved in supporting digital data, software and associated infrastructure in the research sector. These statistics on the current size of the research support professional workforce in Australia will be invaluable in supporting planning on future workforce needs.
- The Current and Future States of the eResearch Workforce [PDF, 833 KB], by Natalie Mast, with an overview by ARDC. The document provides insight into the approaches that can be taken to forecast the future demand of the research support professional workforce in Australia, illustrating the complexity of the issue.
The Discovery projects initiated in this theme were completed by consultants commissioned by ARDC. Outputs of the projects will inform the eResearch Skilled Workforce Summit organised by the ARDC, CAUDIT and Universities Australia in Sydney, 29-30 July.
This Summit will focus on the development of the digitally skilled workforce essential for research in the 21st century. It will bring together stakeholders involved or interested in developing an Australian research workforce composed of both digitally skilled researchers, and research support professionals to maximise research impact.
Read more about the open invitation to the Summit and you can also register for the Summit.
Core features
Who is this project for?
- Research ICT Infrastructure providers
- Universities
- Publicly Funded Research Agencies
- NCRIS facilities
- Research Institutes
- Medical Research Institutes
- Infrastructure providers
What does this project enable?
Broad involvement from eResearch sector to help identify and solve the challenges required for Australia to excel in the new digital economy. The projects themselves should provide meaningful outcomes for research communities and organisations as well as broader learnings for ARDC and the sector. Outputs from these activities will guide key discussions in the future capital and operational investment programs of the ARDC.
Handy resources
- Learn more about the Storage and Compute Discovery Activities.
- Learn more about the Data and Services Discovery Activities.
- Read the news article about launching our Discovery Activities.
- Read the news article about the Storage and Compute open call for project proposals.
- Learn more about the ARDC Discovery Projects.
- Register for the Skilled Workforce Summit and read more about the call for participation.