Between October 2019 and January 2020, the Expert Panel stepped up its consultation process, holding a number of workshops with key research institutions and government agencies. Amongst these were presentations at the November 2019 GEO Week in Canberra and a workshop at the Ecological Society of Australia conference in Launceston, also in November 2019.
Facilitated open consultation meetings on the requirements in research infrastructure toward enabling environmental prediction were carried out in February 2020 across six capital cities. Following promotion online and through targeted emails, around 100 people participated, including members of the Expert Panel. The Scoping Study also received a number of detailed written submissions.
Thank you all for getting involved and helping shape the development of this support system for Australia’s research and decision-making communities.
Participants in the open consultations were from a range of sectors and domains, with 45% coming from university/academic institutions, 31% from federal/state/local government, 10% from the private sector, and 14% from other types of organisations.
Participants were invited to contribute ideas about how a national environmental prediction system should be designed, including ways in which it might be used, to help formulate options for the system design, governance structure and business model to be submitted to the Australian Government in 2020.
There have been a number of common themes across these engagements:
- Culture is a key missing link. We need to build a culture which harnesses the strengths of all partners into a collective effort to solve challenges that have so far proved elusive;
- A key focus must be the capacity to model. Specific considerations include:
- Cross-domain (and in some cases specific-domain) modelling, which remains a significant challenge;
- Most problems are experienced locally, but need often to be viewed regionally and nationally, so efforts need to be able to scale;
- ‘Forecasting’ is currently a more attainable goal than ‘prediction’;
- There must be a partnership approach between researchers, government and industry to provide scientists with an ability to enable decision-makers, and involve all in contributing data, knowledge and resources into solutions;
- We need common approaches, from the creation of data to the ability to understand the assumptions and algorithms underpinning modelling
- Substantial support for a transdisciplinary capability enabling an integrated socio-ecological approach to understand ecological, economic, cultural and social dimensions when tackling grand challenges. Thanks to the Scoping Study, for the first time we have the commitment, awareness of the need, and technological capability to federate the capabilities of existing Australian research infrastructures to tackle complex multidisciplinary program work and meet grand challenges at a global macro scale.
- Reinforcement of the need for the capability to build on existing national research infrastructure and government capabilities in the following three areas:
- Synthesis centre: A scalable facility able to coordinate and host face-to-face and virtual synthesis discussions and consultation activities to assemble work programs
- Modelling expertise: A facility with responsibility for technical delivery and thought leadership around integrative modelling of the Australian environment.
- Digital access platform: A national-scale integrated facility delivering improved access and interoperability of the datasets and the analytical tools needed, to produce data and information products and services to be used by decision-makers
- Endorsement that the Scoping Study identifies case studies for cross-domain integration, modelling and prediction, as exemplars to identify common capability needs across disciplines and sectors and to demonstrate the value of the NEPS investment.
Investment proposal for a national predictive research infrastructure
We’re now pleased to let you know that, towards the end of August, the NEPS Expert Panel and the TERN support team submitted a draft Implementation Plan to the Australian Government Department of Education Skills and Employment (DESE).
The draft NEPS Implementation Plan proposes a ten-year roadmap for developing and operating a National Research Infrastructure (NRI), commencing with a focus on terrestrial ecosystem function and services.
The NEPS Plan outlines a vision of Australia being endowed with a world-leading predictive environmental modelling capability that equips researchers and empowers stakeholders (government, industry and communities) to take informed anticipatory action toward sustainability of our nation’s natural capital in the face of profound change.
It presents the case for an investment in a NEPS NRI that will produce the necessary transformation in transdisciplinary environmental research by enabling ecologists, computer scientists, environmental modellers and statisticians to co-develop the next-generation data sets and models required that will underpin improved management of Australia’s terrestrial ecosystems, and ultimately, other environmental domains.
The draft Plan will be reviewed and modified in consultation with DESE, after which, a final Plan will be submitted. The expectation is that the plan will be considered during consultation on the 2021 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap. Details of this process will be made available via the Department of Education, Skills and Employment website in due course.
