CeRDI Newsletter Autumn 2021

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Victorian drought resilience adoption and innovation hub

Victorian drought resilience adoption and innovation hub

Commonwealth funding has recently been announced for eight Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs with each hub focusing on providing networks for researchers, primary producers and community groups to work together to enhance drought resilient practices within their focus region and to become flagship precincts for agricultural innovation.

Federation University is a consortium partner on the Victorian Hub led by the University of Melbourne which will be supported by $8M funding over four years from the Commonwealth Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF). The vision for the hub is to see an innovative and profitable agricultural sector in Victoria. This means sustainable landscapes, and resourceful and adaptable regional communities. Through the hub, farm businesses will be better informed, more productive, and more profitable in the face of future droughts.

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  Currently in its establishment phase, the hub is a consortia of research providers and research users, with a regional focus. This network of stakeholders will work together to plan and undertake co-designed and demand driven drought resilience research, assisting Australian farmers and communities to prepare for, and become more resilient to the impact of drought. Stakeholders include primary producers, grower groups, industry, researchers, entrepreneurs, education institutions and governments.

  Hubs will translate pre-existing research, knowledge and innovation around drought resilience, and support their effective uptake through the extension, adoption, testing and expansion of new solutions and commercialisation. The hubs will provide a vehicle for influencing and informing future research investment.

  VIC Hub and node locations. Source: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.

  Assoc Prof Helen Thompson represents Federation University through her involvement on the governance group and as the Hub Lead for Digital Platform Innovations. Federation through CeRDI will oversee the delivery of digital solutions for the implementation of innovation within nodes and across the Victorian Hub.

  For further information about this project contact Assoc Prof H. Thompson, Email: h.thompson@federation.edu.au

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Soil CRC national participant meeting: Ballarat hub

Soil CRC national participant meeting

Federation University was one of eight regional hubs involved in the recent Soil Cooperative Research Centre (Soil CRC) national participants meeting . The Soil CRC  is an innovative program of research that supports industry, researcher and community-led collaborations for the discovery and development of good soil practices and related decision making, to optimise agriculture productivity, yield and profits.

The five-hour meeting comprised a series of presentations and panel discussions. Representatives from the Soil CRC (Paul Greenfield, Chair Soil CRC; Michael Crawford, CEO Soil CRC) and the National Soils Advocate (Hon Penny Wensely) presented on the achievements for the Soil CRC and guided the discussion about future directions for the CRC. This was followed by a series of panel discussions about soil carbon, soil stewardship, soil sensors, and farming groups.

 

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  	Soil CRC Project: Visualising Australasia's soils explainer

  CeRDI has been a lead partner on a major Soil CRC-funded project: Visualising Australasia’s Soils. This multi-year project has developed a cloud based research data federation for soils, with spatial mapping (see: Visualising Australia’s Soils ). This first phase of the project has led to the successful development of guidelines for data governance and stewardship to support and demonstrate the value of data sharing, data access and usage.

  Over 200 participants attended the March Soil CRC workshop. Delegates participated in discussions and shared ideas for soils research. In addition to the Ballarat hub at Federation, participants also joined the meeting from hubs across the country, located at the eight partners universities in Brisbane (Griffith University), Perth (Murdoch University), Hobart (University of Tasmania), Wagga Wagga (Charles Sturt University/NSW DPI), Lismore (Southern Cross University), Newcastle (University of New Castle) and Toowoomba (University of Southern Queensland).

  For further information about the VAS project, visit:
  Soil CRC Project: Visualising Australasia's Soils explainer - YouTube  

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Project: Unlocking soil carbon data

Project: Unlocking soil carbon data

A research report documenting the outcomes of a review and analysis of existing soil carbon data for Australia was recently finalised. Commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER) the research entailed an exploration of the quantity, quality, spatial extent, availability and suitability of existing soil carbon data. An assessment of the reusability of data for modelling to support the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) was also undertaken.

The availability of soil carbon data is largely unknown, constrained by data holders in the private sector, and by research organisations and agencies where public data sharing is limited or non-existent. In this project the CeRDI team, led by Assoc Prof Pete Dahlhaus with Chris Bahlo and Andrew MacLeod, sought to overcome these limitations by analysing a representative collection of available datasets using a recognised approach to ensure relevance and rigour could be achieved.

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  Through this research, 22 open data catalogues were identified, generating over 1600 datasets many of which comprised different file formats and presentations. The catalogues were principally sourced from state government departments and agencies. The research team subsequently interrogated 14 datasets using tools developed by CSIRO and TERN Ecosystem infrastructure. The researchers also accessed nearly 800,000 soil observations from 17 datasets in the private sector, 89% of which were from one agribusiness and the others from farmer groups, catchment management authorities, Landcare groups, and academia. A representative overview of the data was captured through this approach, providing insights that support an overall understanding about the collection and reporting of soil carbon data in Australia

  The research reveals that soil data are useful for carbon modelling across landscape and as a space-time digital soil map. This is further strengthened where observations are closely located.  The research highlights the disparate sources of available soil carbon data and the multiple methods for data capture which has been collected by multiple organisations and agencies. It was thus proposed that the introduction of a federated model for soil carbon data collection may assist to reduce these limitations, enabling the collection of rich, longer-term data for broader access and use.

  The findings of this report will inform the DISER soil carbon collection program, which is commencing mid-year, and incorporating the period 2020-2025. 

  For further information about this project contact Assoc Prof P. Dahlhaus, Email: p.dahlhaus@federation.edu.au

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Online Farm Trials

Online Farm Trials Website

Online Farm Trials (OFT) is a long-term, collaborative project involving CeRDI and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC). OFT commenced in 2015 and involves the digital transformation of trial research data and information from Australia’s grains industry. It offers advanced spatial mapping and filtering systems for accessing current and legacy data. The trials data available on the portal have been supplied by stakeholders, including grower and farming systems groups, government researchers, universities and private industry across Australia.

The website is continually evolving, and new data is regularly uploaded to increase the breadth and currency of available data and information. An expert advisory group provides governance to OFT with the research and technology developments undertaken by CeRDI under the leadership of senior research fellow Dr Nathan Robinson.

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  In a recent initiative, a podcast  was prepared for OFT. Coordinated by GRDC and hosted by Hilary Sims, the podcast features GRDC’s Dr John Rivers together Nathan Robinson and Northern Grower Alliance representative Denielle Smith. The podcast provides an overview of OFT, describing its features, and the ease by which trial data can be accessed by growers and researchers alike. It describes the benefits of being an active data contributor to the portal. Currently there are over 15,000 trials available on the site. This provides access to a public repository of varied trials and data from multiple sources which can then be used to assist with on-farm decision-making.

  In other OFT news, CeRDI recently appointed Dr Benedikt Fest as its new research coordinator. Ben will oversee the management and provision of research activities for this and other CeRDI projects. Ben is one of four new staff members to have joined the Centre and his profile is included in this issue of the newsletter.

  The latest round of impact research associated with OFT recently concluded. Survey and interview data were collected with the aim of assessing the impact of technology in supporting decision making and practice change. The research has been undertaken with OFT on two previous occasions to provide and extend the insights about how web portals, such as OFT, are being applied and used. The current impact data is being analysed and will be collated into a report.

  For further information about OFT visit: www.farmtrials.com.au

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Future Regions Research Centre

Future Regions Research Centre

Federation University recently launched the Future Regions Research Centre. Co-located at the Ballarat and Gippsland campuses, the Centre will conserve, protect and transform regions. It will address challenges ranging from the transition away from coal-fired power generation in the Latrobe Valley to helping regional communities recover from bushfire and drought.

This new Centre will work closely with local industry, government, regional and Indigenous communities to develop new knowledge and innovative solutions to the challenges of human societies and their impacts on natural and man-made environments. Environmental scientist and expert in mine stability and closure, Professor Thomas Baumgartl, restoration ecologist and natural disaster recovery expert Professor Singarayer Florentine and cultural heritage and history expert Professor Keir Reeves will lead the research centre.

CeRDI researchers are looking forward to expanding across centre and across campus collaboration with the Future Regions Research Centre.

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  	Future Regions Research Centre - Research streams

  A significant component of the Centre's work will be to support mine rehabilitation in the Latrobe Valley. These will extend beyond the environmental legacy of coal-fired power generation. Collaborations with industry and academia about mine closure and rehabilitation on a national level are fostered through the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Transformations in Mining Economies (TiME).

  CeRDI’s Assoc Prof Pete Dahlhaus is currently collaborating with Prof Baumgartl on the Mine Rehabilitation Trials Online (MRTO), funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Transformations in Mining Economies (CRC TiME). 

  For further information about the Future Regions Research Centre:
  federation.edu.au/research/research-centres/frrc

  For further about the MRTO project:
  www.cerdi.edu.au/MineRehabilitationTrialsOnline

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 Green Scripts

Green Scripts and the Dementia Sensory and Forest Trail at Ballarat’s Woowookarung National Park

Federation University through its Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) is assisting with the development of the online resources to support Green Scripts and the Dementia Sensory and Forest Trail at Ballarat’s Woowookarung National Park www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/parks/woowookarung-regional-park

Funding for the online resource is from the Bigger Hearts Dementia Alliance who have been awarded a Dementia Friendly Community grant. The project is being coordinated by Caroline Gibson. CeRDI will develop online resources that will support and highlight the health experiences and benefits for people with dementia and their carers to use the new park.

Social prescribing is encouraged by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners as a routine for primary health practitioners. It provides alternative methods for improving the health outcomes of patients through the prescribing of social and community activities. Green Scripts is a dementia-friendly social prescribing project aimed at linking people with dementia and their carers with dementia-inclusive community activities.

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  The Woowookarung Park is currently being developing as a dementia sensory forest trail. The proposed online resources will complement the park’s information, proving dementia specific insights about the trail for carers and their families and highlighting the potential sensory experience along the park walk. Additional information will be also be included for health professionals with information and research about green scripting.

  This work will be completed in the coming months.

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 Staff profiles

Dr Benedikt Fest

Dr Benedikt Fest: Research Coordinator

Ben brings to the CeRDI team research experience gained from over ten years working in the field of ecosystem ecology. After completing a Bachelor of Science in Biology at the Ruhr University of Bochum (Germany) and a Master of Science in Ecology at the Technical University of Munich (Germany), Ben completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne (2013) investigating the processes controlling soil methane exchange in Australian forest ecosystems.  

Following this Ben worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne investigating drivers of spatial variability in soil and ecosystem greenhouse gas exchange processes in forest and agricultural systems across Australia.  

Before joining CeRDI, Ben worked at the National Centre for Coasts and Climate (NCCC) at the University of Melbourne. In this role he established research trials across Victoria, investigating if and how ecosystem restoration can simultaneously provide erosion control and increase carbon stocks in tidal ecosystems (blue carbon ecosystems).

As part of his work at the NCCC, Ben reviewed if common sampling methods used to estimate sediment carbon stocks sufficiently account for spatial variation in blue carbon ecosystems. Based on his work Ben was invited to become a member of the expert working group (2019-2020) tasked to draft methods to include blue carbon ecosystem restoration approaches into the Australian Emission Reduction Fund.      

Ben joined CeRDI in April 2021 and oversees the management and provision of research activities for several projects including Online Farm Trials research.
 

Rahul Sinha

Rahul Sinha: Web developer/programmer

Rahul recently joined the CeRDI team as a web developer, having previously been employed as a software developer for a US-based software company. Rahul’s career has included the development of software applications for the retail, automobile, and education sectors. He is proficient in various front and back-end technologies, and their trade-offs, and has worked on applications providing sales data insights, tracking users in real time, and automating daily jobs. Many of the applications Rahul has developed have generated organisational revenue growth through digital innovation.

Rahul has a master’s degree from Swinburne University, majoring in information technologies. His main studies focused on web application development, requirement analysis, entity relationship design, database development, database programming and normalisation. The course also provided opportunities for Rahul to work on well-engineered user interface-intensive applications, frameworks, and automated scripts.

In his role at CeRDI Rahul is working with the technology team to migrate the existing CeRDI workload/server using front and back end technologies. Rahul and his technical colleagues are migrating existing and older applications with the latest software versions.

The server migration will ensure that CeRDI’s web applications are current and incorporate improved security applications. Deprecated application programming interfaces will be updated, and new frameworks will be introduced to accommodate future changes. To streamline this process and facilitate operations, the CeRDI technical team has developed automated scripts. The server migration project will be completed in the second half of 2021.

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CeRDI news snippets

New staff arrivals:

CeRDI recently appointed four staff to join its team. Dr Ben Fest, Rahul Sinha, Tim O'Shea and Richard Archer have been appointed to various research and technical roles, complementing recent staffing appointments of PhD alumni Dr Patrick Bonney and Chris Bahlo.

• Ben has a background in, and research track record in the natural sciences and soils. He will contribute to the research in agriculture and provide coordination  support for Online Farm Trials. Ben has a PhD from Melbourne University.
• Rahul joins CeRDI as a web developer and programmer. He has wide ranging experience in front and back end technology developments. Rahul recently completed a Master’s degree in information technology, further complementing his IT skills and experience.
• Tim is a web developer and programmer providing support for CeRDI including site upgrades and server migration. Tim has a Bachelor of information technology and has previously employed as an application developer.
• Richard is a systems analyst/programmer and will be providing support across numerous projects in CeRDI.

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  Recent staff publications:

  Walters J, Light K and Robinson N. Using agricultural metadata: a novel investigation of trends in sowing date in on-farm research trials using the Online Farm Trials database F1000Research 2021, 9:1305 doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.26903.2

  Ollerenshaw, A., Corbett, J., & Thompson, H. (2021). Increasing the digital literacy skills of regional SMEs through high-speed broadband access. Small Enterprise Research. doi.org/10.1080/13215906.2021.1919913

  Upcoming Science Forum

  The Drought Resilience Science to Practice Innovation forum is scheduled for 29 June – 1 July 2021. Organised in association with the University of Melbourne, the forum will bring together key stakeholders (researchers, practitioners, farmers, agri-businesses, governments, and end users) to discuss regional and national priorities around drought and resilience.

  If you are interested in receiving notifications in relation to this and other, similar events please contact Kathy Gamble k.gamble@federation.edu.au

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CeRDI postgraduate news

Graduations: Patrick Bonney and Alison Ollerenshaw

Graduations
Congratulations to CeRDI’s Dr Patrick Bonney and Dr Alison Ollerenshaw who were both awarded their PhDs at the recent graduation ceremonies held at the Mt Helen Campus, Federation University. Pat’s PhD  research examined the potential for citizen science to foster community and government connections has been paralleled by a policy agenda to proactively draw on this resource to inform waterway planning and policy development. Alison’s PhD research examined the relationship between characteristic services offered at business incubators and incubator tenants’ psychological capital, hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism.

Thesis examination
Congratulations to Chris Bahlo who recently received news that her PhD thesis has been examined and was passed subject to minor corrections. Chris’s thesis is titled Open data and interoperability standards: Opportunities for animal welfare in extensive livestock systems. Principal supervisor for Chris’s PhD was Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus together with associate supervisor, Associate Professor Helen Thompson. Chris’s PhD research was featured in the previous CeRDI newsletter. Further information about Chris’s research is available at: www.cerdi.edu.au/cb_pages/chris_bahlo.php
 

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  Confirmation of candidature
  Peter Weir successfully completed his confirmation of candidature for his PhD research titled In-paddock variability of plant available water. The main goal of this research is the short-term iterative forecasting of the estimated spatio-temporal variability of soil moisture for a selected paddock. Peter’s supervisory team include Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus, Dr Nathan Robinson and Assoc Prof Peter Vamplew (School of Engineering, Information Technology and Physical Sciences).

  For further information about Peter’s research visit: www.cerdi.edu.au/HDRStudents#PeterWeir

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About CeRDI

The Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) is a research centre at Federation University Australia focused on:

• the application of information and communications technology (ICT) and the development of innovative, world class knowledge management systems;
• significantly advancing the digital literacy and knowledge management capabilities of partner organisations;
• fostering partnerships for the development and implementation of eResearch with industry, government and academia; and
• measuring the impact of eResearch and digital innovation through longitudinal research.

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Contact CeRDI

For further details about CeRDI’s diverse portfolio of research please visit our website: www.cerdi.edu.au, or contact Director, Associate Professor Helen Thompson: h.thompson@federation.edu.au

Mailing Address
Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation
Federation University Australia
PO Box 691
Ballarat Vic 3353

Office Location
Suite 15, Greenhill Enterprise Centre
Ballarat Technology Park
University Drive
Mount Helen Vic 3350

Phone: +61 3 5327 9314
Email: support@cerdi.edu.au

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