We were pleased to recently see the Australian Government release the 2021 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap which identifies future needs and priorities for research infrastructure investment in Australia. This is an important strategy setting document for the ALA, our partners in the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure program, and the many thousands of researchers and other users that benefit from this capability.
We’d like to thank the ALA’s partners and stakeholders who made an important contribution to the roadmap development process through contributions to surveys, consultations, discussions, and formal submissions in response to the roadmap consultation draft. The roadmap is comprehensive, respects the existing NRI foundation and historical achievements, yet sets some ambitious goals for Australia to realise improvements.
ALA Decadal Vision: Growth for impact
To support the ALA’s involvement and engagement to the roadmap process, we worked with our Advisory Board, peak bodies, and key stakeholders to develop the ALA’s own vision-setting piece. The ALA Decadal Vision: Growth for Impact was also released this month, framed around an aspiration to deliver trusted biodiversity data for Australia supporting world-class transformational research and more effective decision-making. The vision has been developed to extend and grow the ALA’s impact beyond the current ALA Strategy 2020-2025 and is framed around a set of principles and growth opportunities, while respecting the importance of maintaining core ALA capability.
New data, new sectors, and focus on collections
What’s new relative to what the ALA currently delivers? First, the vision commits to supporting new biodiversity data types, including from advances in genomics-based biodiversity identification, biodiversity survey data, and data emerging from sensor networks all of which are becoming increasingly important for our users. The ALA also recognises the fundamental role biological collections provide in supporting science and accelerating the digitisation of physical specimens to enable digital access. This aspiration aligns closely with the collections step change identified in the NRI roadmap around collections. Finally, the ALA Decadal Vision details the new sectors we will prioritise, and partnership models the ALA will adopt moving forward.
Work is already underway
A decade may seem a long time but the ALA has already commenced pathfinder activities across several decadal priorities, a number of which appear on our current projects pages. Our recently announced data mobilisation program will also provide the foundation to support any further investment in accelerating the digitisation of Australia’s biological collections.
We encourage you to read our decadal vision, particularly in the context of future science and decision-making drivers. I’d personally welcome feedback (ala@csiro.au) if you feel we’ve missed a driver or a future capability. The science we support is diverse and rapidly evolving so it’s important we adapt, evolve and continue to deliver impact.
I hope you enjoy reading the decadal vision and this May edition of our newsletter.
Andre Zerger
Director, Atlas of Living Australia
Back to ALA Newsletter May 2022