Publications

Procurement simplified

Intersect has been approved to be on the panel of vendors that will provide options for potential RDSI nodes and members of CAUDIT with services at special prices. This means that there will now be a simplified process of engagement for members dealing with the preferred suppliers.

RDSI and CAUDIT have established the panel of vendors to provide cost effective infrastructure and services for the sector in the following areas: storage, servers, network equipment, software and cloud storage.

Approved RDSI nodes will be required to procure storage related infrastructure, software and services from the vendor panel unless an exemption is agreed by both the RDSI Board and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. Customers can, of course procure storage related infrastructure, software and services from vendors outside the panel for purposes other than the RDSI project.

The vendor panel aims to:

• provide the sector with an easy-to-manage, cost effective process for procurement of storage related infrastructure, software and services, by pre-qualifying vendors.
• provide members with access to highly competitive and comparable pricing for products.
• simplify legal processes and ensure a consistent approach throughout the sector.
• give vendors some certainty with respect to future revenue.

For more information: http://www.rdsi.uq.edu.au/vepa

NeCTAR RFP stage two

NeCTAR's Request for Proposal stage two is now open. Those interested in submitting project proposals must register to download RFP stage two documentation.

Only Virtual Laboratories and Research Cloud node project proposals may be submitted in this round. Research Tool and National Server Program proposals will not be accepted.

Please note, the Response Template in Part D of the documentation has been modified and streamlined since RFP stage one.

A face-to-face and online briefing session is planned for Melbourne on 16 May 2012. See http://www.nectar.org.au/request-proposal-stage-two

All RFP stage two project proposals must be submitted before 4pm AEST on Friday June 29, 2012

Spectral Library project begins

This University of Wollongong project will facilitate the collation and sharing of spectral datasets amongst the national remote sensing community to promote long-term usability and data sharing. Thousands of legacy spectral libraries exist amongst these multi-disciplinary communities, consisting of spectra derived from multiple instruments and sensors encompassing the disciplines of geology, mineral exploration, environmental sciences, soil science, vegetation science, agriculture, and atmospheric and coastal and marine sciences.  

The project will facilitate the upload of spectra into a central repository, aiming to upload hundreds of libraries with associated metadata with an aim to share these descriptions with RDA.  The system will allow for access to spectral datasets from national and international research groups and importantly, by incorporating such data into image processing workflows, will create new opportunities for research.

Microscopy Data Capture project concluding

Data and metadata management is increasingly an issue for researchers utilising advanced microscope platforms, capturing data in multiple dimensions and from multiple detectors. Data sizes are increasingly difficult to manage.

The Data Management System (DMS) at the University of Sydney node of the AMMRF, the Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis (ACMM), was developed by Intersect as part of the National eResearch Architecture Taskforce AMMRF Platforms for Collaboration project. This system enables the ingest and management of microscopy imaging data and metadata with the ability for researchers to publish data to the Australian Research Data Commons.

The DC2E project augments the DMS deployment at the ACMM to allow data and metadata to be captured from a suite of advanced light optical microscopy platforms including confocal laser scanning, live cell, total internal reflection fluorescence microscopes.

Both the above projects are supported by the Australian National Data Service (ANDS). ANDS is supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy Program and the Education Investment Fund (EIF) Super Science Initiative. 

Newcastle eResearch Analyst announced

Mairead Stephens is our new eResearch Analyst for the University of Newcastle. Mairead has over 14 years experience in software development, quality assurance and project management. She studied at Dublin University and the University of Stuttgart and speaks four languages.

She previously worked as a Test Manager and briefly worked at the University of Newcastle as a business analyst writing tenders including business requirement documentation for software solutions.