 Welcome everybody, I'm Julia Martin from the Australian Research Data Comments and thank you for joining today's webinar where Dr Adrian Burton and Shada Havadi will present an overview of the public sector to research sector bridges program. It's also an opportunity for you to ask questions. I'd like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people who are the traditional custodians of Canberra country where I am today and I pay respect to the elders of the Ngunnawal nation both past and present. I also extend this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in attendance today. Just a bit of housekeeping, during the webinar you will be muted and note that the webinar is being recorded and as mentioned there will be time for questions after the presentation so please add your questions into the pod as they arise. Now I'll hand over to Adrian and Shada. Hi everyone, I'll just go over a couple of the background slides and then we'll hand over to Shada Havadi who's the program manager for this program. This program comes to you through the ARDC, the Australian Research Data Commons. We have a wide range of things that are offered as both service and infrastructure and partnerships, everything from policy and governance and through to software development and platforms. We have storage and compute infrastructure as well as services, information services and data programs. This particular program is one of our data programs and the general context for the ARDC is NCRIS which is a government program, the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and ARDC is one of the programs within NCRIS. This particular program, the Public Sector to Research Sector Bridges Program is a partnership program from our point of view. We're co-investing in building these bridges between the public sector and the research sector. We have a number of programs of co-investment programs in this area and that whole initiative is called the ARDC National Data Assets Initiative. I recommend if you're interested in this that you have a look on our website at the National Data Assets Initiative that will give you the full context for this program. What we're trying to do in this particular program is just really create that nice bridge between the collaboration between the public sector and research sector. The public sector data is an absolutely critical input into research and this program is trying to improve the access arrangements and the particular interfaces for the research sector. We do have a special process in this program which we don't have in our other programs which is a kind of matchmaking and brokering process where not all public sector organizations will be aware of all the different research organizations that might be interested in their data and vice versa. Some research sector people may not know the exact contacts in the public sector for the data that they're trying to work with so there is a special kind of brokering process as part of our expression of interest. I sent you that the context for this program is the National Data Assets. These are six different programs. This particular one is really focused in on the public sector, research sector interface but there are other programs with different focus. The idea of creating national data assets comes from the Encriss program. The spirit of Encriss really is to create nationally significant assets or facilities and services that support leading edge research. The basis of the Encriss and of ARDC is this policy document, the National Research Infrastructure Roadmap that kind of governs what we do. Data is considered as national research infrastructure. Some of those infrastructure programs are to do with instruments or facilities but data itself is one of the components of national research infrastructure. We know that data availability and data sharing is part of the Australian government's plural policy settings that data sharing as a component of government infrastructure has been underlined by the Productivity Commission and by Prime Minister and Cabinet in a number of Australian government initiatives and similar initiatives at the different states. One sense, we are assuming that the different research, the different public sector organisations have some kind of an underpinning capability to make data available and share data in general terms as part of the new mandate that comes with the information age and changes in society where the access to data is part of a society-wide expectation. In order to do that baseline data management, we do have ARDC services and capabilities that I talked about in that first slide that can help in just the normal baseline activity of data sharing. This particular program is slightly different and it's a focus on extending public sector capacity to provide specific research sector requirements, to respond to specific research sector requirements. So from a boring kind of accounting point of view, this is not shifting money from the research part of government to the other operational parts of government to do the normal data sharing. This is a specific extra piece of work where research sector requirements require the public sector agencies to go to some extra step and we're considering that extra step is part of the national research infrastructure and that's why we're co-investing in this program. Let's come to some of the background. I will now pass over to Shada Hadavi who's the program manager for this program to go through some of the details. So in this program at a glance, the aim that we have is to extend or improve the public sector data to be able to support the leading edge research. For the participants, we encourage collaboration but we need at least one research organization and one public sector to be involved in this project actively. And for the funding, ARDC will invest up to $350,000 per project and we are estimating that the projects will start in the fourth quarter of this year and they can be up to two and a half years. The expression of interest phase which is open at this moment is open until 29th of June after which they would be followed by a request for proposal phase which is open from mid-August to mid-September and the request for proposal phase is the competitive stage where there would be much more questions on the projects in mind. Next slide. So the activities that are scoping this program are to implement data standards, to extend existing collections within the public sector or to develop interfaces to provide access to the data, to establish new governance policy or access arrangements to the data or to connect the data set with research infrastructure, analytical tools, platforms or other modeling environments. Next. So we have a few prerequisites. So as I said, we need to have at least one research organization involved. We need at least one public sector department or agency. And the public sector should already have the baseline data management and data availability. So we do not support generation of new data from the beginning if there is no data already in the public sector. And we do need formal support from both of the research organization and the public sector. However, if at the stage of the EOI, the formal support is not there, that's quite alright. The bridging process that I will explain the next slide if you can pass. So in the bridging process, if you are a research organization or you are a public sector organization that has the data, but you do not have all the parties involved, you can use the contact us form on our webpage, contact us and say, I have this idea, but I do not have partners. We will get in touch with you and help you to find the correct partners for this project. You can alternatively even submit your idea using the UI form. And then in the UI form, you can, there is a place where you can indicate that you don't have all the partners already formally support the project. If we have such an UI submission, we will again reach out to you and we will do our best to help you find the right partners. But by the time that you're submitting your proposal, you expect that you have found all the partners. So at the UI stage, you will be involved with you to help you find the right partners and we will be involved in bridging process. But why the request for proposal phase if you still have not got the formal support from the research organization or the public sector, you cannot proceed. Next. So for the selection criteria, the aim basically has to be that you improve public sector data or its access management, that you would demonstrate the purpose for the proposed data asset by how it will enable new research, new insights or impact beyond research, that you would have identified the beneficiaries. And we would prefer if you have them as project partners in advisory board, in committee or any several other roles that we will propose, that you would have a plan to have this data asset as an ongoing national research infrastructure. And this year, we do not have a mandatory co-investment for our project, but the level of co-investment is still counted as one of the selection criteria in this program. Next. So I think we have covered all the details of the program. Adrian, I hand it back to you. OK. Now, we're coming towards the end of this. So if you do have any questions, there is a question pod, I believe, in the controls there if you'd like to just note any questions down and we'll get to those questions in just a few minutes. All right. So now kind of summing up as to what the objectives of this, what we're doing here, we're trying to make that bridge. This is a diagram that's been adapted from the National Infrastructure Roadmap. What we're trying to do here is get that connection between the public sector data and the national research infrastructure. We think by the combination of public sector data with the research sector value add of modeling analysis tools, et cetera, that moving off towards the right, we can actually really create some very important sort of environmental, social, economic impacts. We should also just underline that in this diagram between the public sector and the national research infrastructure, we're hoping that there's a quite an important self-interest for the public sector partners in that if we can make available through this program, I'll just take an example, information on the health system or the education system and that can be coupled up to modeling environments from the research sector that we should be able to, that one of the key beneficiaries could, should be the public sector organizations themselves with access, public sector policy officers, for example, could be able to get access to this national research infrastructure to do their own modeling and come up with better public policy. They could be having long-term partnerships with research organizations on the basis of the data and the value add research infrastructure so that the public sector organizations are getting benefiting from research sector analysis and in the end, we're getting better public policy and of course we want also economic and environmental and other social impacts but I just underlined that I think in the very first instance there could be a very nice virtuous circle here that the public sector data is made available in a more specific way to the research sector and then the research sector can provide value add specifically back to the public sector in terms of better analysis and background for public policy. So just to readdress there, sum up on the project program objectives, we are coming at it from a research sector point of view. We think that one of the benefits here is that I'm sure public sector agencies get all sorts of people tapping them on the shoulder saying we're interested in data. This process should be able to provide some priority requirements from a larger group of researchers in a more coherent and coordinated way. The third point there, it will also give us a good two-year period to work together in a coordinated and aligned way to build up some much more serious collaboration between the two sectors other than what could be done by trying to coordinate activities that just come from the normal administration of public sector and the normal research. These are projects that will bring the two partners together in a much more formal way and allow a better long-term goals to be delivered. And then again as I said the last thing we're actually hoping that through this synergy here that we will be able to improve public policy administration and service delivery through that there's the leverage and symbiosis between the two sectors. So I think that's all we want to say as far as in way of background. I think the next part of the session is questions. So I believe we already have some questions there. What's going to happen is that Julia will read them out and then we'll answer those. So if there's anything on your mind go to the little control panel find the the question section and just type your questions in there. Thanks Adrian. Questions do we have there? The first question we have is can current Enquist facilities be the research partner? So yes the Enquist facilities can count as the research partner together with universities, a publicly funded research organization and medical research institute all four would count as research partners. Thanks Shadda. Next question says you said there are six related grant schemes. How do I know if this is the right scheme versus some of the others if I don't yet have a public sector partner? So if the question so if you want to work with the data that exists in a public sector in creating a data asset this might be the correct program for you. If you do not have the the only problem to you if you know the data exists but you don't have the correct contact you can reach out to us and we will help you to find the correct partner. But if your doubt is beyond this not having the right contact you can afterwards use the contact form to reach out to us and we will arrange for the meeting to give you an overview on other programs and we can invite the other program managers to be also there so you can explain the idea that you have in mind and we can guide you which might be the correct program for you. And there is a intentional overlap between some of our programs of course in some of our other programs we are expecting public sector and research sector to be working together in all sorts of different ways. This program we've allocated it's a portfolio approach we've allocated particular programs to have particular focuses so that by the end of our this whole and the whole data assets initiative we will be sure that we've covered off a number of important areas so that's why we've cordoned off this program here to make sure that by the end of all of this we will have improved the interaction between the public sector and research sector because we see that as a really strategic priority. So in one sense this is a program where we've really restricted the eligibility and the criteria so that we really try and make a difference in this area. In all our other programs of course having public sector partners is is quite encouraged and really you could use those other programs if you have any doubts as to which program you should be in then just contact somebody at ARDC and we're happy to to listen to what your idea is and give you some advice on which of those might be the best. Thanks Sergio next question does the project have to result in nationally available data or can it be on the pathway there? So we do want a national data asset this doesn't mean that data has to be openly available to to everybody but it does mean that there has to be correct licensing on who can access the data so there has to be correct metadata nationally available but that doesn't mean that data itself has to be openly available on a national level but so we called a national data asset a data asset that everybody would know how they can access the data and has correct metadata defined for it and it respects all fair guidelines. Adrian do you want to answer that? Yeah and this is a nice example of the previous question we actually have another program which is specifically called Emerging Collections and that's again in its portfolio approach we didn't want just the only the strongest collections just to get stronger and stronger by more and more investment we actually have a pathway there'll be a call in October this year for the emerging collections thing and that's exactly for that kind of thing where we can see the potential but you know the the work that needs to you know the output of the first project is to create the collaboration create the governance you know start the pathways and the pipelines for the data but not necessarily you know have a mature data asset in this program we don't have any criteria that would that would make it easy for a non-specific data asset to actually score well because one of the you know the criteria are that people can access the data so if it's I think the words you use there were pathway it doesn't need to be settled at the time of your application but by the time that the end of the project is there we would definitely expect the data to be available shader said it doesn't need to be open it needs to be fair and needs to be accessible in an appropriate way but in this project in this program we wouldn't accept the endpoint of the project saying okay we're now we've now established a pathway or a framework or something like that we would want to see some actual data being made available by the end of this project but if you think that your project is just a pathway project then we have another program for those pathway projects thanks Adrian next question what expectation of funding balance is required between the public sector agency and the research organizations in terms of investment so I don't think we have any limits on that what we will look into is the sum of the total investment basically and that would count as one of the criteria so the fact that which one of the organizations is investing does not affect our criteria next question what is the view on leveraging between the data asset schemes and the platform schemes so that so each of the programs so would be evaluated separately so if you do have a program also for us in the bridging in the public sector bridging and one in platforms they would be evaluated separately and they will not affect each other so but we do encourage you to contact us if you are planning to do so and there's no guarantee if your project requires both halves because they're competitive processes we can't guarantee that both would get up or one would get up or any of them would get up so you would have to make the dependencies if it exists that if you don't get one the other will not go ahead sorry but in a general sense the data assets program is exactly what it's saying it's it's focusing on the the content the actual quality of the data the standards in the data the governance over the data the collaboration the pipelines for the data ontologies everything to do with the quality of the data asset itself as well as interfaces to analytical platforms and software etc but the focus of these programs is really on the on the data asset itself the platforms project is complementary to that it's focusing in on an analytical platform or an access platform that takes for granted the existence of data so yes the two programs are complementary in that sense next question could the ABC count as a public sector partner specifically in terms of access to existing news clips etc quick question next here Adrian it's a good question we do have a list there's a specific list on the website of public sector agencies i'd be happy to take this question offline to check whether it's on there and if not under what you know what definition of a public sector agency we're going off the the definitions that are on the common what there's a commonwealth site that lists public sector organizations in australia next person asks that they they have a specific question about an EOI using state and national data assets are they able to set up a phone conversation to discuss this definitely and so you can use the contact us that is on at the bottom of the page of the public sector if you can just drop your phone number or your email address i will reach out to you to set up a call next question when will the new program for emerging data assets open so i think they are planning to have two calls one would be october this year and the other would be october 2021 and the next question i think has been answered how should we contact you yeah so i said at the bottom of the contact us for and that's all the questions we have just now does anybody have any others that they want to add to the pod no it looks like oh hang on here we go will the presentation be made available so we are recording the whole call and i think the whole webinar will be available so but if necessary we can actually make the slides available as well yeah all right so it looks like we're coming to the end there um shader what's the next what's the next key date that everyone needs to keep in mind so we have at the end of june 29th of june the end of the EOI process already at this stage if you have any further questions or if you want to help with finding the right contacts do reach out to us and otherwise submit an EOI by the end of june because if you have not submitted an EOI you will not be able to submit a proposal at the later stage so if you do submit a proposal without having the right contacts you will still be eligible to submit a proposal so do submit a proposal by the end of june and then we will reach out to you and then the request for proposal phase will be open mid august so 14th of august if i'm not mistaken until mid september 17th of september to be exact okay well thank you very much hand over to julie to just wind up there um thanks shader and adrian um as shader mentioned if you do have further questions please either use the form um and we will be putting our questions from today in our frequently asked questions so thank you very much everybody for attending bye