Australian research stands to reap enormous benefits from the coming revolution in ‘big data’.
Big data is not just massive structured data sets. It is also large integrated data sets bringing together elements such as spatiality, facial recognition and natural language processing—all of which open potentially exciting opportunities for researchers.
The Academy is leading the development of a national framework and strategy through its project, Big data in Australian research: issues, challenges and opportunities. By consulting across disciplines and connecting with international big data initiatives, the project will identify common and discipline-specific practices, challenges and strategic developments, map existing data science capability and infrastructure within and across disciplines, identify opportunities for efficiencies, and assess technology, infrastructure, training and collaboration priorities for the future.
The project’s Expert Working Group is jointly led by Academy Fellows Professor Michael Barber and Associate Professor Jane Elith, together with the Academy’s National Committee for Data in Science.
The report to come out of the project will be informed by the contributions of a broad range of stakeholders through targeted interviews and written submissions.
As part of the consultations, the Expert Working Group has developed ten questions on which it would particularly like to hear views, with responses sought by 31 October.
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