Under the Australia Awards Fellowship (AAF), the Victorian State Government’s Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources Division of International Education has organised and sponsored a delegation of Latin-American Universities’ senior research administrators and researchers to visit Victorian universities in September. FedUni hosted the delegation on Wednesday 23 September at Mt Helen

1. Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation
Federation University Australia
CeRDI Research Capability
September 2015

2. Federation University Australia
Origins: 1870 Ballarat School of Mines
Campuses: Ballarat, Gippsland, Wimmera
Faculties & Schools:
(dual sector)
Students: ~ 23,000 domestic and international
• Business
• Education & Arts
• Health
• Science & Technology
• Industry Skills
• Federation College

3. Major technology and research trends
 Ubiquitous high-speed broadband…
Universities have the connectivity that the rest of Australia is waiting for
 The Petabyte Age…
>50% of the world’s data is being collected each year – how will this change current
research practices? What do we need to access, publish and share?
 Open data policies…
Opportunities for Universities and particularly regional universities to play a significant
role in generating insight from data
 Mobile technologies…
App development and responsive design – for student and staff recruitment,
engagement, knowledge transfer
 3d and visualisation technologies…
Massive innovation and research opportunities

4. Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation
CeRDI - www.cerdi.edu.au
~ 28 staff – 14 research, 11 technical, 1 project, 2 support/research admin
Unaligned to Faculties - reports to DVCR

5. National
and
FedUni
research
priorities
CeRDI Government,
industry and
community
needs
The application of eResearch and development
of innovative digital solutions to bridge the gap
between academic research and government,
industry and community needs
CeRDI capability:

6. Research Domains:
Groundwater
Soil
Agriculture
NRM
Climate change
Urban planning
Health
History
Sports
Social science
Arts
Etc., etc.
Technology & services:
Content management
Web portals
Knowledge management
Single source publishing
Web GIS
Data interoperability
Visualisation
Web services
Training
Servers, hubs
Survey instruments
Etc., etc.
Research outputs:
Real world applications
Community empowerment
Capacity building
Government
Community
Industry
Research
Research papers
HDR completions
Impact assessment
Global collaborations
Sector development
Research-ready datasets
Etc., etc.
x =
CeRDI capability: eResearch

7. Sport and Recreation Spatial
www.sportandrecreationspatial.org.au
 A national geographic information system (GIS) for presenting spatial data.
 Evidence based decision making for the sport and recreation sector
 Increased capacity for research, strategic planning, and development of participation
programs and facilities.
 Provides FedUni and VU researchers with ready data sets to address research
questions of national and international significance
 Attracting government and industry investment in research
 Generating extensive research publications
 Aligned with a FedUni PhD which will generate publications and Sports Injuries Atlas

8. Regional Digital and Technology Studies
Extensive experience in coordinating regional and local ICT planning projects:
Great South Coast Regional Communications Strategy
Yarra Ranges Opportunity Assessment for Economic and Community Growth
through the Broadband Economy
Wimmera Southern Mallee and Central Highlands ICT studies
Moorabool Community Broadband and Telecommunications Strategy
Ballarat ICT 2030 strategy

9. Natural Disaster Research
Major landslide events of January 2011 in the Grampians National Park
Floods precipitated over 190 landslides, contributing significant impact to the
environment and communities surrounding the Park
FedUni engaged by Northern Grampians Shire
Investigate the social, economic and environmental impact of the events
Project not only produced traditional research report – but also maps and data and a
resource library
Benefits of this approached confirmed by the Rapid Response Team responding to
bushfires in the region 12 months later

10. Regional Development
Western Business Accelerator and Centre for Excellence
The Western BACE project is an important initiative that will improve economic,
educational and community opportunities for Melton and the west Melbourne
growth corridor.
 The Research Group identified a range of research opportunities across the life of this
project (and beyond)
 Funding was attracted with support of Melton City
 Now Western BACE is operational a FedUni PhD will commence to explore the impact
outcomes during the early years of operation

11. Regional capability building
Central Highlands Health Justice Partnership for youth
Officially launched at Ballarat Community Health on 3 July 2015
The Health Justice Partnership for Youth is a collaboration between FedUni,
Ballarat Community Health and Central Highlands Community Legal Centre.
 It has been funded by a major grant from the Victorian Legal Services Board.
 The program will deliver an integrated medical and legal service with a lawyer from
Central Highlands Community Legal Services based across all sites at Ballarat
Community Health.
The program will provide early intervention for legal and health issues to
improve the outcomes for young people experiencing multiple health and legal issues.
FedUni will be undertaking longitudinal research to evaluate the program impact

12. Health sector capability building
Dementia Pathways
 Developed initially in the Grampians Region via a partnership with Department
of Health, Grampians Medicare Local, Ballarat Health Services and Ass Prof Mark
Yates
 Adoption expanded to the South Eastern Melbourne region
 Provides general practitioners and practice nurses with online information, resources
and local contact information to assist with the diagnosis, early intervention and
management of patients with dementia
 Longitudinal research is tracking the practice change outcomes linked to the
Dementia Pathways
 This research is also informing expansion of the pathway into new areas

13. Land Your Career
 Aims to educate and inspire prospective students on the careers and roles that exist
in the land management sector whilst providing information about how you get
qualified or build your qualifications
 Broad ranges of themes that take in water, fire, natural environments, restoring
landscapes, forestry, conservation, cultural heritage, biodiversity, sustainability,
parks/reserves and landscape/building design

14. CeRDI
Groundwater: Challenges and Strategies - 41st IAH International Congress, Marrakech, September 15-19, 2014 14
A variety of applications:
groundwater , soils, agriculture, biodiversity, fire, history,
sports, municipal, etc.
Allows integration of cross-disciplinary data sets
spatial.federation.edu.au
Spatial data portals

15. Third party e.g. ABARE, ABS, BOM, CSIRO, EPAs, Unis, ………State base mapping, etc.
Water agencies, research organisations, industry, individuals, etc.
End users, e.g. Browser, mobile application, desktop application, groundwater model, etc.
Used by: researcher, community group, farmer, environmentalist, media outlet, agribusiness, etc.
Output as:
web services (W3C, OGC
compliant)
Input as:
Data, map layers, grids, text
and imagery in native
format (or web services)
Citizen science
 Landcare,
environmental and
community groups
 landholders,
farmers, individuals
 tourists, visitors
 schools, TAFE,
University students
 clubs, volunteers
GIS
SQL
Sensors
Images
Documents
Organisational
data
Sounds
Interoperability capability

16. CeRDI capability: example projects
Online Farm Trials – www.farmtrials.com.au
 GRDC funded 2012 - 2015
 All grains trials for Australia online
 Working with Grower Groups, government, industry
 Spatial filtering and selective keyword filtering
 Brings in climate data and soils data on-the-fly
 Allows data exports
 Decision support tool for agronomists & growers
 Research-ready data sets of all grain trials

17. CeRDI capability: example projects
CropPro – www.croppro.com.au
 GRDC funded 2012-2014
 CeRDI engaged in Northern and Southern projects in 2014
 Online diagnostic tool for wheat and canola constraints
 Uses Lucid - keying software developed by UQ
 Science by DAFWA and DEPI (now DEDJTR)
 Decision support tool for agronomists & growers
 GRDC funded support in place for further enhancements 2015 & 2016

18. Integrated Fire Management Planning
 An interoperable spatial information system for Barwon South West stakeholders
 Providing access to the most current relevant information and fire risk data
 Developing more effective partnerships and creating enhanced stakeholder
knowledge
 Supporting the community to develop integrated regional and local fire management
plans
 Technology and skills transfer achieved by embedding project staff on-site with CeRDI
team
 Emergency Management Victoria applying learnings through VINE project

19. State Wide Integrated Flora and Fauna Teams
 Captures information and data on rare and threatened species
 Very strong community engagement and support
 Decision support tool for municipalities, community groups, etc.
 Research-ready data sets
www.swifft.net.au

20. Corangamite NRM Planning Portal
www.ccmaknowledgebase.vic.gov.au/nrmpp
 Corangamite CMA funded 2013 – 2015+
 Identifying spatial intersection of investment opportunities
 Web-GIS tools to add projects online, crowdsourcing data
 Allows data exports, screen capture as pdf, saved workspace links
 Captures past and current on-ground projects and investment
 Decision support tool for investors and community groups
 Research-ready data sets of NRM data
Landcare group #1
Landcare group #2
Landcare group #3
|
Landcare group #n
Local Landcare
network
5-year plan
Federal program #1
Federal program #2
State program #1
|
Govt program #n
CMA Regional
Catchment
Strategy

21. CeRDI capability: example projects
www.vvg.org.au
 Broadband grant 2011 - 2013
 Federates all Victorian groundwater data
 5 bore databases, spatial layers, EPA data
 Predictions on the fly
 User selected 3D visualisations
 Allows data exports
 Decision support tool for practitioners
 Research-ready data sets

22. CeRDI capability: example projects
Corangamite Soil Health Knowledge Base
www.ccmaknowledgebase.vic.gov.au/soilhealth
 Corangamite CMA funded 2012 - 2014
 Online portal that combines eLibrary of grey literature with web-GIS
 Over 3000 documents and 120 layers in the system (legacy data capture)
 Allows crowd-sourced soil test data (e.g. farm soil tests)
 Strongly supported by government, industry and community
 Allows data exports, screen capture as pdf, saved workspace links
 Decision support tool for farmers, agronomists, catchment managers, Landcare
 Research-ready data sets of soil and related information

23. Ballarat Historic Urban Landscapes
www.hulballarat.org.au
 Captures heritage values for city planning (UNESCO approach)
 Combines eLibrary, web-GIS, visualisations and social media tools
 Before & after sliders, photo maps, panoramic visualisations, 3D landscape models
 Liberated significant municipal data sets to online availability
 Very strong community engagement and support
 Decision support tool for city planners, developers, community groups, etc.
 Research-ready data sets

24. Climate Adaption
 Climate Ready - Motivating residents to create their own interactive, personalised action
plan to prepare for the impacts of climate change.
 Aims to support the community to prepare for the likely impacts of climate change
including flood, fire, drought and heatwave
 Project partners include Mornington Peninsula shire, City of Kingston and
Bayside City Council
 Building Resilience in Farming and Agribusiness – Literature review and gap
analysis – West Wimmera Shire and Wimmera Development Association
 South West Climate change portal – early days on this but already sparked interest
from DWLWP, DEDJTR and other CMAs - Project partners include Corangamite CMA,
Glenelg Hopkins CMA, Greater South West Councils (10 municipalities from SA border
to Port Phillip Bay)
 Opportunities with Comminisioner for Environment Sustainability Victoria, Sustainability
Victoria, Environment Protection Authority Victoria

26. Research collaborations
 Regional Universities Network Precision Agriculture Flagship established
 8 HDR Scholarships to be confirmed at RUN P/DVC(R) meeting mid May
 2 of these HRDs will be with FedUni)
 CSIRO expressed interest in providing top up funds and co-supervision for one of the
FedUni HDR scholarships.
 Looking for industry partners to support RUNPAF and also great students seeking to
undertake post graduate studies
 Research and Innovation Network for Precision Agriculture Systems established
 FedUni a ‘paid up’ member of this national group
 Contributing to development of National RD&E Strategy for Precision Agriculture
Systems
 Regional Universities Network Water Flagship
 Workshop in Coffs Harbour Sep 2015
 Vietnam Agriculture Group
 Collaborative development of agriculture and associated natural resource management
projects with RUN and other partners

27. International information standards development
 3D visualising tool BoM funded, collaboration with Queensland University of Technology
 Project completed and delivered platform independent, 3d visualisation tool for OGC
standard data, to be implemented in the BoM's National Groundwater Information
System
 Groundwater international interoperability experiment (GW2IE)
 Currently on-track with CSIRO collaboration, implementing the XML and will start
testing of Use-Cases this month. Expected completion and release of first standard by
September 2015 (OGC Meeting in Orléans, France).
 Soil markup language (SoilML)
 CSIRO research partnership extended to 2016
 FedUni has joined OGC SoilML interoperability experiment

28. CeRDI capability: example systems architecture

29. Collaboration opportunities
CeRDI has an extensive track record in research collaboration with
research, industry and community partners:
 Opportunities to collaborate in areas of mutual research priority (agricultural
futures, land management, soil, water, climate adaption…)
 Opportunities to extend FedUni eResearch capabilities and approaches
through international collaboration in areas including knowledge
management, spatial research, open and interoperable data (e.g. research,
legacy, sensor, crowdsourced, dynamically modelled)
 Platforms for sharing information, for information and advocacy and for
answering the frequently asked questions of research stakeholders
 Established models for measuring the success of the collaboration and
research impacts