Accelerate Your Earth and Environmental Sciences Research

Accelerate Your Earth and Environmental Sciences Research

From fighting climate change to saving threatened species and reversing ecosystem deterioration, earth and environmental science researchers are tackling big challenges for our planet.

Key to this mission is access to high-quality and trusted data, digital research infrastructure that enables sharing and reuse of the data, and tools that help with the creation and analysis of the data.

Get your free researcher’s guide

About the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)

The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) is building Australia’s research data infrastructure. We provide Australian researchers with access to national research data collections, cloud computing, platforms and digital research skills training.

For over 10 years, we have been providing services to earth and environmental science researchers across Australia. We work with all universities in Australia, government agencies, overseas organisations and more.

Top 3 Resources to Accelerate Your Earth and Environmental Sciences Research Now

Through a number of our services and co-investment projects, we provide earth and environmental science researchers with access to datasets, free digital research tools and upskilling materials.

These include the following 3 resources – and you’ll find more further down:

Stay Up to Date: Get Your Free Guide for Digital Research in Earth and Environmental Sciences

Receive 5 emails packed with top digital research tools and upskilling materials curated for earth and environmental science researchers.

You’ll also receive our fortnightly newsletter ARDC Connect, which shares latest news, events, training and resources for data-intensive research in Australia.
Lead Magnet Block

Datasets for Earth and Environment Sciences Research

Big Data concept. Blockchain 3D illustration. Information Waves and the Global Database. Neural networks and artificial intelligence. Abstract technological background

ARDC Research Data Australia

Find, access and reuse data for research from over 100 Australian data sources.

Research Data Australia is the ARDC’s portal to research data and associated projects, researchers and data services from more than 100 Australian data sources, including research organisations, government agencies and cultural institutions.

Research Data Australia offers access to data in such areas of interest to earth and environmental science researchers as:

Free Tools for Earth and Environmental Sciences Research

An abstract photo

ARDC Nectar Research Cloud

Accelerate your research with cloud compute resources, software and data that can be accessed anywhere. Start your 6-month trial.

Nectar allows fast, remote access to reliable computational capabilities, software and data.
Australian researchers can use Nectar to develop and host services including databases, data repositories, web services and tools, and large-scale research platforms or virtual research environments.

We host services for earth and environmental science researchers on Nectar, which can save time, boost your productivity, facilitate collaboration and give you added power to conduct your research:

Virtual Desktop Service

Access extra computing capabilities through GeoDesktop or any of the 5 other desktops we offer, which you can easily set up in minutes.

Explore the service >

Jupyter Notebook Service

Develop, combine and export computational notebooks and interactive visualisations in Python, R and SciPy.

Explore the service >

National GPU Service

Reserve GPUs and large-memory virtual machines in 16 flavours in advance for your research.

Preemptible Instances service

Access extra computational resources for a short period of time on demand.

Nectar also powers digital services provided by ARDC-supported projects and other National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) facilities, including the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), AuScope, Integrated Marine Observation System (IMOS), Microscopy Australia, National Imaging Facility (NIF) and Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN).

See a list of the services.

We provide hands-on cloud computing training for all researchers. Topics include basic security and using containers on Nectar.

To access our cloud computing training, visit the Nectar Research Cloud Learning and Training Support Centre.

ARDC Research Vocabularies Australia

Create, find and access controlled vocabularies – which make the meaning of data clear and explicit – to make your research data FAIR and maximise its impact.

Wondering which vocabulary you should use? In partnership with the research community, we’re introducing ‘community lenses’ – domain-specific guides created and maintained by the community for choosing the right vocabulary for a particular purpose.

The prototype guide is now live, covering earth and environmental sciences. Try out the guide and learn more about community lenses, including how you can help create a guide for your research community.

We Are Building the Planet Research Data Commons

We Are Building the Planet Research Data Commons

To meet the needs of earth and environmental science researchers, the ARDC is co-designing a Planet Research Data Commons (Planet RDC) with partners in academia, industry and government and with other national stakeholders. The Planet RDC will help accelerate your research through cross-sector, multi-disciplinary and nationwide data collaborations by:

  • bringing together data from a wide range of sources
  • integrating underpinning compute, storage infrastructure and services with analysis platforms and tools supported by expertise, standards and best practices.

The Planet RDC is a long-term national infrastructure program supported by the Australian Government. Learn more and register your interest.