eResearch
eResearch is a relatively new term to describe research activities that utilise technology to enhance research output. Whilst the terminology is new, eResearch has been undertaken in some research areas for quite some time. The web was developed in the late 1980s to enable particle physicists to share data. The web is still used to share data, though these days the volume of data transferred and accessed is much, much greater.
The web is one part of the suite of technology solutions that can enhance the output of Victorian researchers. It was developed to allow physicists to share the large quantities of data that was produced in experiments. Physics experiments were, and are, so large that scientists travel from many countries to use them. The experimental data produced must therefore be accessible to the scientists from their usual place of work and be able to be shared.
Similar 'problems' face researchers across many different fields: from those using one of Australia's newest and largest scientific instruments, the Australian Synchrotron, to researchers studying the participation and experiences of students in maths classes. Researchers often travel long distances to access equipment and collaborate with colleagues, they generate, analyse, share and store increasingly larger and larger datasets, they are required to diversify their skill set and collaborate with people and groups outside their traditional research areas and must do so with greater requirements for security of data. All of this is occurring in an environment with increased pressure to demonstrate timely research outputs.
In Victoria VeRSI is working with and supporting a range of researchers in adapting to the use of information and communication technology to enable them to overcome these constraints and to enhance the overall quality of Victorian research. The benefits are not limited to Victorians though: with collaboration networks extending past state and national borders the capacity for knowledge transfer to transcend conventional boundaries in limitless.
More information on the research that VeRSI is supporting, the groups we are collaborating with, and the outputs of this collaboration, can be found in VeRSI Activities.