Professor Paul Bonnington is the Director of the Monash e-Research Centre, Monash University, and a Professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences. Prof Paul Bonnington is a member of the Go8 Digital Futures group, and the steering committees for the Victorian Life Sciences Computing Initiative (VLSCI) and National Computational Infrastructure’s Specialist Facility for Imaging and Visualisation (MASSIVE). Paul is also a member of CSIRO’s e-Research Council. He recently served as the Chair of the Steering Committee for the Australian National Data Service Establishment Project. The Australian National Data Service is an initiative of the Australian Government begun under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.  Since its development, it has executed plans to develop Australia’s research data infrastructure, capture descriptions of Australia’s research data, and to build Australia’s research data management capability. The Monash e-Research Centre’s (MeRC) role is to build collaborations between research disciplines, nurture e-Research developments and to build bridges between researchers and service providers. The Centre is an initiative of Monash University’s Deputy-Vice Chancellor (Research) to support researchers, by harnessing the resources and capacities of the IT Services Division, the University Library and computer scientists in the Faculty of Information Technology to enhance research capability.

Presentation: Building the eResearch Data-scopes for new Australian Centres of Research Excellence

We highlight how Monash University's eResearch program is supporting the strategy to create a world-class research environment to underpin the research of two new ARC Centres of Excellence:

• ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging
• ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function

Such environments require the orchestration of specialised instruments, data storage and processing facilities, and advanced data visualisation environments. The Clayton Innovation Precinct is now home to a world-unique trifecta to support this vision:

• Advanced scientific instruments located at Monash University, CSIRO, Australian Synchrotron and affiliated medical research institutes;
• Unique data processing capabilities of the Multi-modal Australian ScienceS Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE) HPC facility; and
• A world-class immersive visualisation environment for data analysis and collaboration (the CAVE2).

The way in which scientists apply these three capabilities in concert will be an archetype of the way research will be performed in the 21st century.

In this talk we outline the the institutional support structures (the “Talent"), the advanced computing infrastructure (the “Technology") and the agile project processes and management approaches (the “Tolerance" for risk and ambiguity) that have created a solid platform to enable the very best research to be conducted at the Centres of Excellence.