As the world becomes ever-more complex, so too the questions being tackled by researchers are becoming increasingly intricate. The riddles of climate change, biological systems and an expanding array of health issues lie portentously before scientists.
However, this class of problem is insurmountable by individuals working within traditional research environments.
Consequently, a clear global trend towards collaborative research supported by new technologies, has evolved. In some fields there has been a rapid transition from individual research to collaborative activities involving researchers across many institutions, often from different but synergistic disciplines. Particularly in the sciences, eResearch methodologies have been widely adopted.
However, eResearch is also flourishing in work taking place outside of science. Researchers in the humanities, arts, and social sciences are employing new research tools such as shared digital collections; advanced data curation and annotation tools; and high performance computing and visualisation.
These tools and collaborative approaches make up eResearch, and are drawing the world of research forward.
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eResearch enables researchers to collaboratively accomplish studies that are beyond the scope of individuals
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eResearch enables the processing and sharing of data in quantities that has never been possible before
