THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL DATA SERVICE AND OPEN ACCESS TO DATA

Andrew Treloar

Director, ANDS Establishment Project

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ANDS: Building the Australian Research Data Commons

ands.org.au

Outline

Context Blueprint Goal Structure Progress Internationally Acknowledgements

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Context3

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eResearch Co-ordinating Committee (2006)

Thematic Issues

Continuing Need for a Focus through national coordination

Human Capabilities People, skills and understanding

Linkage of eResearch Resources seamless access to resources

Access to Data best practice data management

and curation

Structural and Cultural Change evolution of organisational

structures and cultures

Awareness and Support develop researchers’ ability to

adopt eResearch

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Service Clusters

• Data– outreach, curation, data

management– meta-services, location, access,

movement– practice, providers and users

• Computing – capability computing facilities– national computing environment

• Interoperation– discipline services (tools

((software))– user and operations support– collaboration services support

• Access– the Australian access federation– the Australian research and

education network

http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/research_sector/publications_resources/profiles/e_research_strat_imp_framework.htm

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Australian Code for theResponsible Conduct of Research Describes the responsibilities of institutions and

researchers in range of areas, including the management of research data and primary materials

Institutions are to retain research data, provide secure data storage, identify ownership, and ensure security and confidentiality of research data

Researchers are to retain research data and primary materials, manage storage of research data and primary materials, maintain confidentiality of research data and primary materials

http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/synopses/r39syn.htm

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NCRIS Investments

$542M** over the five years: 2007-2011

• Evolving bio-molecular platforms and informatics

• Integrated biological systems• Characterisation• Fabrication • Biotechnology products• Optical and radio astronomy• Integrated marine capability• Structure and evolution of the Australian

continent

• Networked biosecurity framework

• Population health and clinical data linkage

• Terrestrial ecosystem research network

+ Platforms for Collaboration (allocated $82 M)

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NCRIS Budget Breakdown7

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Platforms for Collaboration:Major Investments 2007-20118

Access

Interoperation

Com

puteD

ata

Capability ComputingAdvanced models

NCI - $26M

The Data CommonsData Federations

ANDS - $24M

Research connectivitySeamless reach

AAF+AREN - $6M

Collaboration servicesResearch workflows

ARCS - $20M

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Blueprint9

=

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The ANDS Blueprint

Towards the Australian Data Commons (TADC)

Developed during 2007 by ANDS Technical Working Group

Mapped out coherent vision of what needs to be done in the data space

Available at http://www.pfc.org.au/bin/view/Main/Data

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TADC: Why Data? Why Now? We are in an era of increasing data-

intensive research Almost all data is now born digital Increasing amount of data generated

(semi-)automatically “Consequently, increasing effort and

therefore funding will necessarily be diverted to data and data management over time” (TADC, p. 4)

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TADC: Need for standardisation Software and hardware keep getting cheaper,

wetware keeps getting more expensive Fixing data management problems is

enormously labour intensive and costly “Consequently, standardisation within forms of

data and simplification in the frameworks around retention, storage, access and use of data, and the elimination of differences whose resolution requires labour, must be made, if the on-going keeping and reuse of data is to remain affordable” (TADC, p. 5)

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TADC: Role of data federations With more data online, more can be done Possible now to answer questions unrelated to

reasons why data was collected originally Increasing focus on cross-disciplinary science “Consequently greater clarity is needed over

control and access to community-funded data, and the means of aggregating, federating and accessing such data are increasingly important” (TADC, p. 5)

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Changing Data, Changing Research New scientific instruments

Large Hadron Collider at CERN will generate 1.5 gigabytes of data per second

the Square Kilometre Array (1 EB/day!) New scientific Models

The mapping of the Human Genome: A billion DNA letters in a human sequence

Global climate models with ever finer resolution New knowledge from unlocked data

Hubble data has to be shared six months after collection Majority of published research from Hubble telescope

data was not “first use” http://www.nature.com/news/specials/bigdata/

was free for two weeks, now isn’t

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Goal15

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The ANDS Goal

“to deliver greater access to Australia’s research data assets

in forms that support easier and more effective

data use and reuse” TADC, p. 18

And to be a “voice for data” RF, 24/9/08

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ANDS implementation assumptions ANDS doesn’t have enough money to fund

storage And so is predicated on institutionally-supported

solutions Not all data shared by ANDS will be open ANDS aims to leverage existing activity, and

coordinate/fund new activity ANDS will only start to build the Australian

Research Data Commons ANDS governance and management

arrangements are sized for the current funding

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Realising the goal18

Develop user and owner frameworks for data commons

Develop and operate national registries and discovery

Seed the commons by connecting existing stores/federations

Increase capabilities across sector in data mgt, integration

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Structure19

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ANDS Delivery Structure

ANDS has been structured as four inter-related and co-ordinated service delivery programs: Developing Frameworks Providing Utilities Seeding the Commons Building Capabilities

Plus candidate service development activities funded through National eResearch Architecture Taskforce projects

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Developing Frameworks (Monash) Influencing relevant national policies Building common understanding of data

management issues and solutions across government, research funding agencies, and research intensive organizations

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Assisting OA by encouraging moves in favour of discipline-acceptable default data sharing practices

Assisting OA by encouraging moves in favour of discipline-acceptable default data sharing practices

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Providing Utilities (ANU)

Building and delivering national technical services to support the data commons

Initial services Discovery

Both “you come to us” and “we come to you” flavours Probably a two-step process for some collections Includes surfacing of ISO2146 entities (next slide) for

web harvesting Persistent identifier minting and management Collections registry to underpin discovery

Plus Services Roadmap for later years Providing capability within ANDS for integration

of existing systems into Australian Data Commons

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Assisting OA by improving discoverability, particularly across disciplines

Assisting OA by improving discoverability, particularly across disciplines

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ISO2146

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Seeding the Commons (Monash) In targeted areas (because not enough

resource to do everything), working to improve: fabric for data management amount of content state of data capture and management

Selection process to identify targets Plus, opportunistic content recruitment

in first year

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Assisting OA by increasing the amount of content available, much of it (hopefully!) OA

Assisting OA by increasing the amount of content available, much of it (hopefully!) OA

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Building Capabilities (ANU)

Improving level of capability for research data management and research access to data Train-the-trainer model

Two initial target populations Early career researchers Research support staff (IT, data management) NOTE: Overlapping but different messages

Building a community around data management concerns

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Assisting OA by advocating to researchers for changed practices

Assisting OA by advocating to researchers for changed practices

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Progress26

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ANDS: From Project to Service Government asked Monash, ANU, CSIRO to set

up ANDS Establishment Project has met all its deliverables DIISR has now signed contract for ANDS First (interim) Business Plan available at

http://ands.org.au/andsinterimbusinessplan-final.pdf This will run until June 2009 Next Business Plan needs to be complete by March

2009 for consideration and approval ANDS will run until July 2011

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Australian Strategic Roadmap Review Data Storage (p.21)

National data-fabric, based on institutional nodes Shared Data (p. 22)

More ANDS Coordination Component (p. 23)

Integration of eResearch activities Expertise as an enabling infrastructure (p. 23) http://www.innovation.gov.au/ScienceAndResearch/

Documents/Strategic%20Roadmap%20Aug%202008.pdf

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National Innovation System Review R7.10: A specific strategy for ensuring the

scientific knowledge produced in Australia is placed in machine searchable repositories be developed and implemented using public funding agencies and universities as drivers

R7.14: To the maximum extent practicable, information, research and content funded by Australian governments including national collections should be made freely available over the internet as part of the global public commons…

http://www.innovation.gov.au/innovationreview/Pages/home.aspx

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Internationally30

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Wellcome Trust

Policy on data management and sharing The Trust “wishes to ensure that the outputs of the

research it funds, including research data, are managed and used in ways that maximise public benefit.”

Benefits gained from research data “will be maximised when they are made widely available to the research community as soon as feasible, so that they can be verified, built upon and used to advance knowledge.”

Trust “expects the researchers that it funds to maximise the availability of research data with as few restrictions as possible”

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Policy/Policy-and-position-statements/WTX035043.htm

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National Institutes of Health

Final NIH Statement On Sharing Research Data (February 26, 2003) “Data sharing is essential for expedited translation

of research results into knowledge, products, and procedures to improve human health”

NIH “endorses the sharing of final research data to serve these and other important scientific goals”

Investigators “are expected to include a plan for data sharing or state why data sharing is not possible”

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-03-032.html

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Acknowledgements

ANDS Project Management Committee

Paul Bonnington, Monash Cathrine Harboe-Ree,

Monash Alan McMeekin, Monash David Groenewegen, Monash Vic Elliott, ANU Adrian Burton, ANU Markus Buchhorn, ANU Alex Zelinsky, CSIRO David Toll, CSIRO Tracey Hind, CSIRO Clare McLaughlin/Jacqueline

Cooke/Peter Nicholson, DIISR Rhys Francis, AeRIC

ANDS Organising Network Andrew Treloar, Monash David Groenewegen, Monash Adrian Burton, ANU Margaret Henty, ANU Chris Blackall, ANU Ross Wilkinson, CSIRO Tracey Hind, CSIRO John Morrissey, CSIROSenior Representatives Edwina Cornish, Monash Robin Stanton, ANU Alez Zelinsky, CSIRO

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