Technology The ARC’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems are fundamental to the productivity of its staff and effective delivery of the NCGP, ERA and EI programs. ICT services provide modern workspaces to support flexibility and mobility within the workforce, and efficient and effective business systems to support business processes. This is all underpinned by robust and reliable infrastructure. The ARC plans to focus on ensuring the continuity of existing ICT services while building foundational capability for the future. Business systems will be enhanced to provide further efficiencies to the research sector and support whole of government initiatives. The ARC Data Portal has aggregated data from ERA on all Australian university researchers by employment type and level, gender and field of research and NCGP data from GrantSearch. There is also metadata for every research output submitted to ERA (over 500,000 outputs). The high rated impact studies and engagement narratives from EI are also available which provide rich qualitative data on university best practice. The ARC collects and holds valuable program and administrative data on the NCGP as well as the ERA and EI assessment processes. The ARC will continue its move to cloud based services. The infrastructure service will be modernised to reduce the physical footprint and utilise contemporary technologies to provide reliable end user services. Remote working capabilities will continue to be enhanced, with greater focus on the support for collaboration within multi-disciplinary teams.
Data and Analytics The ARC values data as a strategic asset and collects a range of NCGP, ERA and EI program and administrative data as well as information on Australia’s research and innovation systems. The ongoing collection of NCGP data is used to gain a comprehensive picture of ARC’s research funding and to monitor trends over time for NCGP programs and schemes. It contributes to evidence-based decision-making, ARC performance reporting and evaluation, and informs policy development and implementation. This resource is utilised by a diverse range of stakeholders including universities, researchers, policy makers and the broader community. The ARC is committed to promoting the outcomes of the research it funds and ensuring that non-sensitive data is made publicly available to extend the value and use of ARC-funded research. Ensuring that non-sensitive data are made publicly available to extend their value and use is a key driver of our data activities. One of the ways we meet the challenge of balancing the demands from stakeholders for access to data, against the requirements of legislation and the resources of the agency, is by optimising the functionality of the ARC Data Portal. The ARC is extending its data visualisation capability through the Data Portal, including development of dynamic data displays and other data products, allowing stakeholders to access NCGP data in new ways beyond the static spreadsheets, tables and lists currently available on the ARC website.
12
Australian Research Council / CORPORATE PLAN 2020–21
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker