Submission – National Research Infrastructure Roadmap

The Academy recommends long‑term supercomputing and data investment, coordinated research collections, and a workforce strategy anchored in stable funding and international partnerships.
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The Academy welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the development of the 2026 National Research Infrastructure (NRI) Roadmap.

Australia’s NRI system underpins the nation’s ability to conduct high-quality research, collaborate internationally, foster innovation, and the ability and capacity to respond to complex national challenges across climate, health, energy, industry and national security.

As the Roadmap sets the direction for the next five-year evolution of research infrastructure, we emphasise the importance of establishing a framework that strengthens the fundamental science that pushes technological advancement, drives discovery and strengthens both our sovereign capability and international collaborations. 

The Academy recommends that the roadmap:

  • elaborate on the definition of ‘nationally significant’ to provide a whole-of-system approach to research infrastructure, recognising the different scales of research infrastructure Australian science relies on and allowing for long-term strategic planning of infrastructure and international partnerships
  • present a coordinated, long-term national strategy and investment to secure and build Australia’s high-performance computing and data capability – increasing critical capacity for Australia to meet its challenges and national priorities
  • establish a nationally coordinated program to maintain and mobilise Australia’s research collections
  • prioritise the development of a workforce strategy to attract and retain the highly skilled staff that underpin our national research infrastructure in collaboration with the host institutions.