CeRDI Newsletter Spring 2022

Message from the Director

Associate Professor Helen Thompson Director, CeRDI

As the year draws quickly to a close, the final CeRDI newsletter for 2022 gives us an opportunity to reflect upon, and to celebrate another successful year.

Highlights in this issue include the public awareness campaigns by Federation University of the research undertaken in CeRDI, the Darwin Muster involving CeRDI staff for the Rangelands Carbon project, and an overview of recent research and technical activities supporting the second stage of Visualising Australasia’s Soils.

We congratulate Dr Basharat Ali who recently submitted his PhD thesis for examination, and we look forward to sharing the achievements of our CeRDI PhD candidates in 2023.

The CeRDI team continues to grow as we welcome our latest recruit, Aakansha Chadha. Aakansha is working with the Online Farm Trials team to support the important research activities linked to agriculture and grains trials research. 

Centre research outputs have expanded. This issue showcases some of the research project activities and associated outputs. This includes reports, refereed journal publications, conference and committee presentations, workshops and seminars.

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  Finally, two IBM / CeRDI PhD scholarships are currently being advertised for research in the following areas:

  • Decision support to achieve net zero carbon for land managers and enterprise managers, and
  • Maximising data integration and interoperability for better regional outcomes

  Further information about these scholarships is included below, or by contacting myself: h.thompson@federation.edu.au

  We look forward to building on the successes that the CeRDI team and HDRs have achieved this year. In the meantime, we look forward to a happy festive season, and we wish you the same.

  Associate Professor Helen Thompson
  Director, CeRDI

CeRDI: Finding technology solutions

Associate Professor Helen Thompson

The following story was recently published by the Federation University Newsroom . It includes insights and perspectives from CeRDI Director, Assoc Prof Helen Thompson:

In 2023, Federation University’s Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) will turn 25 – a significant milestone for the centre that is a global leader in data interoperability and has developed many award-winning web-based spatial information and knowledge portals.

For nearly 20 years, Associate Professor Helen Thompson has been CeRDI’s Director, having joined the research centre after working in finance and administration.

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  Today CeRDI is a highly successful research group that has an esteemed international reputation. CeRDI has more than 30 research, support and academic leads, 10 PhD students and an outstanding record of partnering with multiple organisations over many years in projects worth millions of dollars.

  Associate Professor Thompson, who has a Doctorate in Business Administration, says CeRDI aims to help organisations understand “how new technologies can solve or make things easier in the real world”.

  “I come from outside of the university sector and personally I’m much more interested in real-world challenges and issues rather than blue-sky research,” she says. “We’ve got these long-term programmatic research partnerships, and our partners trust us.”

  “To have been around for 25 years is a testament to the world-class research and collaborative work that is being done at CeRDI – it is rare for a research centre to have survived and thrived for so long.”

  CeRDI was established in 1998 and Associate Professor Thompson began working there a year later, initially writing business cases and securing funding. During the roll-out of the NBN she was recognised by the Australian Government as a National Broadband Champion for her role in advancing rural and regional economies through the uptake of broadband technologies.

  As CeRDI is based in Ballarat, many of its long-term partnerships are with agricultural organisations such as Birchip Cropping Group, Precision Agriculture, the Grains Research and Development Corporation and Southern Farming Systems, and currently there’s a $6.5 million project with Australia’s largest beef producer, AACo.

  However, helping agricultural companies adopt new technologies isn’t all CeRDI does, with ongoing projects in citizen science and with catchment management authorities.

  In commenting on her long association and leadership at CeRDI, Associate Professor Thompson commented: “When you have the opportunity to work with people, organisations and communities for 10 to 20 years, as you’re listening, you often hear how similar issues are occurring in different organisations, so you can show them how someone else has dealt with it.”

  “A lot of our partners don’t know what they don’t know in terms of technology. It’s a bit of a black box to them. So one thing that we’re really good at is listening to their issues and working out where technology may play a role,” Helen says. “It’s an open systems approach, so we will try to adopt and adapt from what already exists, but often there’s a level of customisation.”

  By mustering the university’s resources, Associate Professor Thompson and her team might have a groundwater scientist, soil scientist or psychologist working alongside database and IT specialists to build technological solutions with partners. “It’s a pretty unique academic and research area, but then we have a strong technical team that is transferring that science or social science to the real world,” she says.

  Finding technology solutions

Rangelands Carbon project: Update and workshop

Image of participants from La Belle station during field trip (Juan Guerschman’s drone)

In October, researchers at CeRDI participated in a five day workshop and field trip to Darwin for the Rangelands Carbon project. The ‘Darwin Muster’ provided project collaborators and partners from the Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre (Food Agility CRC) Rangelands Carbon project the opportunity to attend the ‘Rangelands Field Trip, Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) Deep Dive, and Research’ event.

The Rangelands Carbon project is a Food Agility CRC supported project. Funding of $6.5million is supporting research to transform how rangeland farmers estimate, manage and trade carbon. Federation University are collaborators on the project together with the AACo; (Australia’s largest beef producer), the University of Technology Sydney, Charles Sturt University and three technology partners: Cibo Labs, Mullion Group, and Carbon Link.

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  Federation University has been awarded $1 million through the project to expand opportunities which will have a real-world impact through collaboration with private sector companies and other universities. CeRDI has a central role in ensuring data generated through the project and shared among projects partners is managed internally according to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). Bespoke data governance processes have been established for the project to support these data management goals for the project. CeRDI is also involved in two streams of work focused on carbon modelling and natural capital risk assessment.

  CeRDI researchers Dr Birgita Hansen and Dr Ben Fest, and data policy manager Gabi Ceregra attended the Darwin workshop which was organised to consolidate the project’s focus. Various activities, field trips and events were organised for participants, offering a unique understanding of how each team member fits within the project and how partners collaborate. The event enabled the sharing of project learnings and generated discussion about future project activities linking theoretical perspectives with practical outcomes.

  The workshop was the first opportunity for many of the participants to meet project colleagues. This had not been possible until now, due to restrictions associated with the CoVID pandemic. The CeRDI team attending the workshop commented that it provided them with an opportunity to obtain an important and timely update about of the project, which was enhanced with the opportunity to connect with project partners and teammates. It also provided an understanding of how the different project participants operate separately and in unison to enable better project connections.

  A key outcome associated with the project will be the development of a tool to accurately and affordably estimate and model soil carbon in Australian rangelands, which comprise 75% of the nation’s landmass. It is anticipated that the tool will assist with reducing reliance on expensive soil tests while facilitating farmer management of soil health and participation in the growing carbon market. To achieve this, the project team will establish a baseline measure of carbon in soil, pasture and woody vegetation cover across AACo’s estate, estimate changes in carbon over time and in response to different landscape management practices using advanced modelling and remotely sensed data, and advise industry on opportunities to improve carbon sequestration.

  The project will conclude in 2024.

  For further information about this project visit: https://www.foodagility.com/research/rangelands-carbon

Two PhD Scholarship Opportunities

Two IBM / CeRDI PhD scholarships are currently open for applications in the following two areas:

1. Decision support to achieve net zero carbon for land managers and enterprise managers

Overview: To meet sustainable development goals, many enterprises aspire to achieve net zero carbon. Working with regional industries, this project uses sensors and artificial intelligence to access the quantity and quality of data for carbon monitoring, modelling, accounting and visualisations, as an evidential base for their claims of carbon neutrality.

Project outcomes will include collaborative development, regional data sharing and the uptake of digital technologies including data federation, visualisation, image analysis, modelling and AI.

Supervisors: Federation University Dr Birgita Hansen, Dr Nathan Robinson; IBM: Dr Arun Vishwanath, Dr Ram Kolluri.
 

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  2. Maximising data integration and interoperability for better regional outcomes

  Overview: Rapid regional change through climate, population and economic pressures is an urgent global issue. This project explores the use of data sharing and modern, smart technologies to enhance regional liveability, prosperity, innovation, safety and social connectedness in the rapidly growing City of Ballarat, using data visualisation and analytics to improve planning.

  Supervisors: Federation University: Associate Professor Helen Thompson, Dr Shoaib Riaz ; IBM: Professor Iven Mareels

   

  For more information about both scholarships please visit the Federation University scholarships page: https://federation.edu.au/research/graduate-research-school/prospective-students/study-research/hdr-scholarships/phd-industry-scholarships

  Further details are also available by contacting CeRDI Director, Assoc Prof Helen Thompson: h.thompson@federation.edu.au

Tracking the endangered Australian Painted-snipe

Above image courtesy of Danny Rogers

CeRDI’s Dr Birgita Hansen is one of a team of ornithologists, researchers and ecologists campaigning for funding to support research to track of one of the world’s rarest and little known birds: the Australian Painted-snipe.

The Australian Painted-snipe is a breed of water bird residing in shallow wetland habitats. It is one of the rarest bird breeds in the world with an estimated 340 birds remaining. Consequently, it has been listed as nationally and internationally endangered.

Very little is known about this snipe species; it has never been comprehensively researched nor its movements monitored to understand its breeding, wading and migratory patterns. Planning is underway to address this void and to conduct research to better understand these birds. Research using tracking devices to monitor bird activities will be led by an experienced team of nine researchers (including Birgita Hansen) - the Australian Painted Snipe Tracking Team.

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  This research will involve attaching tracking devices to 12 birds. The birds will be targeted in their traditional habitat in the Murray-Darling Basin, but a significant challenge will be locating individual birds. To assist with this, an extensive network of volunteers will be on hand to help uncover bird sites. This will enable the research team to capture the birds and attach tracking devices, after which they will be released back into their habitat.

  The data from the trackers will be analysed by the researchers to unlock new information about movements patterns of this elusive species. It is expected that this research will help ensure the recognition and conservation of this bird and ultimately, save the species from extinction.

  To support this project, a crowd funding page has been established. Birgita is also keen to receive ideas from anyone interested in supporting, sharing or contributing to the project in any way.

  For further information project:
  Contact Dr Birgita Hansen: b.hansen@federation.edu.au
  Website: https://chuffed.org/project/paintedsnipe
  Facebook: Tracking Australian Painted-snipe
  Twitter: Tracking Australian Painted-snipe

Visualising Australasia’s Soils

Visualising Australasia’s Soils web portal

Visualising Australasia’s Soils (VAS) is providing Australasian farmers, agronomy practitioners, agricultural researchers and agribusinesses with place-based information via an online platform access to data, information and knowledge on Australasian soils. Phase one of project (2018-2021) has produced a number of important outputs, including the launch of the VAS web portal . The portal provides an online place to discover and share soils information, activities and research from Australia and New Zealand.

The second phase of VAS is now underway (2022-2024), transforming it to an independent and enduring soil research data federation. It is envisaged that VAS will become an important component of an Australasian soils knowledge system that is both self-sustaining and inherently useful for research and education.

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  The VAS team are conducting a range of activities to support the project’s core objectives including:

  Impact Research: Research is underway to understand the impact of VAS on decision making and supporting practice change, and to understand portal user’s interactions and expectations for VAS. Interviews with project partners commenced earlier this year to explore usage and access to the portal and the ways in which the portal may have informed knowledge and supported practices. Interviews will continue to be conducted in future years to assess ongoing usage and impact of VAS. The findings from the recent research interviews are informing current and future developments of VAS in meeting project partner needs.

  VAS presentation at the Soil CRC conference: CeRDI’s Andrew MacLeod presented to delegates and project partners at the recent Soil CRC conference in Perth about the VAS project. A recording of the presentation is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzBQywHAhvA
   

  VAS Technical updates – System Build and functionality: Extensive work has been undertaken on the design and development of the observations system and processing of soils data for VAS. Mapping of soil results data to standard schemas, terms and definitions, linking to governed vocabularies of terms has been adopted, where possible.

   

  The functionality of the portal continues to develop. Recent advances include an enhanced display of soil test results on the portal with additional filter options. The CeRDI VAS team are also preparing a spatial reporting tool to enable users to draw a custom search area and generate reports about soil information. This will become publicly available once clarification about data availability and access is negotiated with the project partners.

Moth Tracker: Continued public interest

Bogong Moth. Image: Donald Hobern

The partnership between CeRDI and Zoos Victoria has become firmly established with the citizen science website supporting initiatives associated with wildlife conservation. It is now three years since the website ‘Moth Tracker’ was launched and it continues to encourage and offer members of the public an opportunity to upload sightings of the bogong moth during their seasonal, spring migration from Queensland, New South Wales and western Victoria to the alpine regions of Victoria. 

Moth sightings enable researchers to use this data to understand the moth’s migration. In turn, this assists to identify factors affecting other species, such as the availability of food for the Mountain Pygmy-possum. Bogong Moths are an essential food source for the possum and reduced food availability is thought to be contributing its declining population. The possum is currently listed as ‘Endangered’ under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. New knowledge from the Tracker will be used to inform decision making about future conservation and recovery efforts. This small marsupial, which is native to south-eastern Victoria, has been included in Zoos Victoria conservation program to support local wildlife under threat from extinction.

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  The Age newspaper recently featured a story about the Bogong Moth and Moth Tracker and reported on data submitted to the app from recent years. Declining numbers of Bogong moths have been observed since tracking commenced in 2019. Differences also exist between states with sighting of moths increasing in Victoria but appear to be declining elsewhere (ACT; NSW). 

  The data from sightings from this year’s count are yet to be finalised but information from the data collected by Zoos Victoria will again be used to inform conservation efforts for the Mountain Pygmy-possum. Information will also be made available via key online platforms, including SWIFFT  and Visualising Victoria’s Biodiversity (VVB). It is hoped that the sharing of findings from the project will encourage existing and new citizen scientists to become active participants in, and recipients of new knowledge about the preservation of endangered Australian wildlife. 

  Zoos Victoria Fighting Extinction website: 
  www.zoo.org.au/fighting-extinction
  www.zoo.org.au/possums

  Bogong Moth Tracker application and SWIFFT:
  www.swifft.net.au/mothtracker

Staff profiles: Aakansha Chadha, Research Fellow

Research Fellow, Digital Agronomy/Soil Science: Aakansha Chadha

CeRDI extends a warm welcome to our latest team member, Aakansha Chadha. Aakansha commenced in the role of digital agronomy/soil science research fellow in the Centre in October. 

Aakansha has a Masters in Science from Mumbai University in Botany and Plant biotechnology, and has an Honours in Environmental Science from Federation University Australia. Most recently Aakansha was a PhD candidate at Federation University Australia. Her thesis, which has recently been examined, is entitled “Ecology and management of a tropical invasive weed, Cyperus aromaticus (Navua sedge) in Queensland, Australia” This research addressed a significant weed management problem at a stage where intervention is cost effective, efficient and environmentally sensitive. The research has contributed fundamental new knowledge regarding the ecology of the species. 

Aakansha’s research interests include weed ecology and biology, herbicide use, non-chemical weed management options and integrated weed management systems. She is a member of the Ecological Society of Australia and Weed Science Society of America.  Aakansha has previously been employed as a research assistant at Federation University and has also contributed to funded projects with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Aakansha has been living in Ballarat for the last five years, which now qualifies her as a Ballarat-local!

In her role at CeRDI, Aakansha is working predominantly on Online Farm Trials (OFT). In this role, Aakansha will be advising the team and supporting making trials research data accessible through the OFT platform.

News snippets

Senior Research Fellow: Dr Birgita Hansen

Latham snipe project: The Federation University Newsroom recently featured a story about a citizen science project that CeRDI has been closely involved with. Dr Birgita Hansen was interviewed for the story, which includes commentary and insights from Birgita, who is the lead researcher on the Latham Snipe project. To read this story: https://federation.edu.au/news/articles/harnessing-the-power-of-many

Forge Magazine: CeRDI is to be featured in an upcoming issue of Forge Magazine. Forge is a quarterly magazine providing a spotlight for Australia’s economic and entrepreneurial successes. Links to the story will appear in a future issue of the newsletter.

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  Recent publications:

  Benke, K., Robinson, N., Norng, S., Rees, D., O’Leary, G. (2022). Epistemic Uncertainties in the Assessment of Regional Soil Acidification. Environments, 9(8), 97. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments9080097 .

  Murphy, A., & Ollerenshaw, A. (2022). A community-wide approach to reducing risky drinking cultures in young people in rural Australia. Australian Journal of Rural Health. http://doi.org/10.1111/ajr.12936

  Murphy, A., & Ollerenshaw, A. (2022). Digital data and practice change: The impact of innovative web portals on user knowledge building and decision-making processes. Online Information Review. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-08-2021-0403

   

  eResearch Conferences: Three CeRDI team members - Dr Megan Wong, Scott Limmer, and Dr Chris Bahlo - recently attended the eResearch Australasia 2022 Conference in Brisbane, 17-20 October. Megan also co-chaired a ‘Birds of a Feather’ session within the Future-focused eResearch Strategy Theme. The session was entitled: Vocabularies across domains and cross-domain vocabularies: What are the burning issues for interdisciplinarity? For more information: https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/2022/08/vocabularies-across-domains-and-cross-domain-vocabularies-what-are-the-burning-issues-for-interdisciplinarity/

   

  Federation University presentation: CeRDI’s Gabi Ceregra recently gave a presentation to the Federation University community about 'Creating trust for data sharing, including developing data sharing agreements'. The presentation was organised to celebrate and promote Open Access Week 2022. This year’s theme was dedicated to 'Open for Climate Justice' which encourages connection and collaboration among the climate movement and the international open community. Gabi is a Data Policy Manager in CeRDI and is developing best practice data management policies for the Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre and the next version of the National Farmers’ Federation Farm Data Code and a supporting accreditation program through research and engagement with agricultural sector stakeholders. 

   

  Soils Conference invitation 2023:  Assoc Prof Peter Dahlhaus is the invited, keynote speaker at next year’s North Central Catchment Management Authority’s Sustainable Soils Conference, to be held on 31 March 2023. More information about this event will be provided in the next newsletter.

   

  Presentation to Human Research Ethics Committee: CeRDI was invited to present at the November meeting of the Human Research Ethics Committee (low risk committee and full committee) with the aim of building connections and awareness amongst committee members about the research and work of each of the research Centre’s at Federation University. Dr Alison Ollerenshaw, CeRDI’s research integrity and research ethics advisor, presented at both meetings providing an overview of CeRDI and its thematic research areas. Alison also discussed a selection of recent research projects in which HREC approvals are in place.

Higher Degrees by Research news

PhD Candidate: Rob Clark

Publications:

Perry, E., Sheffield, K., Crawford, D., Akpa, S., Clancy, A., & Clark, R. (2022). Spatial and Temporal Biomass and Growth for Grain Crops Using NDVI Time Series. Remote Sensing, 14(13), 3071. MDPI AG. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs14133071

Thesis submission: PhD candidate Dr Basharat Ali recently submitted his thesis for examination. Basharat’s research investigated the roles of data, digital agriculture and resilience in agricultural performance. Basharat’s supervision team included Assoc Prof Peter Dahlhaus, Assoc Prof Helen Thompson, and Dr Nathan Robinson. For further information about Basharat’s research: https://www.cerdi.edu.au/cb_pages/precision_conservation_agricultural_practices.php

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.

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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