Intersect Australia
Overview - September 2009
Ian Gibson, CEO
[email protected]
Intersect: One page summary
 A company established by its founding members to provide eResearch
services to its members
 Members are:
 USyd, UNSW, UTS, MQ, Newcastle, Southern Cross and UNE
 Discussing with other organisations about joining
 Formally established July 2008, practically started Nov 2008
 Current staff: 35
 Intersect is the NSW member of ARCS (http://www.arcs.org.au/)
 Several of our programs are funded through ARCS
 Received $2.8M is start-up funding from the NSW government
eResearch is the application of advanced
information & communication technologies
to the practice of research
Intersect: Mission Statement
Work with NSW Universities and others to
increase the quality, efficiency and visibility
of NSW based research through
the provision of advanced and specialised
ICT services and solutions,
enabling:
- improved management of research data
- new methods for collaboration
- new research methodologies
3
Intersect: Staff profile
CEO
Engineering Division
1
Project Management Office 2
User Interaction Design
1
1
Services Division
1
Admin
Member Support
5
HPC Support
1
Accounts
ARCS Services
3
Communications
SW Engineering
8
System Admin & Eng
2
ARCS Auth’n Services 4
Quality Assurance
1
ANDS (Data) Services
1
Learning and Development 1
4
HR
Office Admin
1
1
Member Interaction and Delivery
Member Institutional and Faculty Services: IT, Library etc
Intersect
eResearch
Analysts
Intersect
eResearch
Analysts
Intersect
eResearch
Analysts
Intersect service and technology aggregation and customisation
Intersect
Specialised support
HPC,
data management,
L&D,…
Intersect
Projects
Intersect in the national context
Services Division
Dr Markus Buchhorn
Director of Services
Intersect services
• Provided by Intersect (and other) resources
– Our people and infrastructure
– Also:
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•
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•
•
NSW member of ARCS
Partner in NCI (soon)
Deeply engaged with ANDS
Working closely with other state eResearch agencies
Try to ignore the acronym soup
• Delivered
• through institutional frameworks, as appropriate,
• for Researchers and for Support Staff
Services Portfolio Model
Technical Services
• High-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure
– Through specialised and appropriate facilities
– Two clusters hosted at ac3 (soon one); share in NCI from 2010
• Ability to buy more
• Scale from institution/desktop through ‘shoulder’ facility to peak, with merit
and dedicated access
• Data services
– Storage infrastructure:
•
•
•
•
Phase
Phase
Phase
Phase
1a: small scale local investment
1b: $100k to purchase more disk
2: LIEF application – “NeRDs”
3: EIF funding via ARCS
– Support for management, preservation and access (with ANDS)
• Collaboration, Authentication & authorisation services
– Sharing and working together, with appropriate access limits
Direct (User) Services
• Awareness, outreach, advocacy
– What is out there, and what could be out there?
• Skills development for researchers and for support staff
– “Training”, face-to-face and on-demand
– Online, in print, etc.
• Building off existing materials as far as possible, but attuned to needs
• Advice on e-research methods, opportunities
• Project development support and IT consulting
– for projects during Scoping, Development and Operation
• Support for community building
– E.g. Websites, wikis, forums and document sharing, mailing lists, etc.
– Support for meetings, events
• Helpdesk services
– in coordination with member institutions.
Strategic Services
• Requirements analysis
– To understand strategically what researchers need
•
Surveys, in various forms
– To support institutional, state and national planning frameworks
• Enhancing the community’s skills-base
– Finding appropriate people, and making them available for quick starts
– Developing their skills, and offering career paths beyond research projects
• Solution development and “hardening”
– Creating new tools/services, and
– Making existing tools/services more robust, user-friendly, higher-performance,
properly supported
• Support for funding applications to maximise outcomes
– Proper scoping of ICT and people requirements
– Assisting and coordinating across groups, institutions, ...
• Linkages
– Groups with solutions need to find groups with problems
•
And vice versa!
Engineering Division
Chris Mendes
Director of Engineering
What do we do?
• We create new technology
– Web sites
– Applications
– Databases
– Other cool stuff
• We build & roll out infrastructure
Key Goals
• Provide value to members in a fair and equitable
way
• Develop re-usable technologies
• Develop ‘package-able’ solutions which can
become services in the future
• Bring solid engineering practices to eResearch
and raise capability across the sector
• Provide ‘Delivery Management’ for projects and
services
Funding Basis
• “Innovation Projects”
– Funded through membership fees
– Strategic selection process by the Innovation
Committee
• Externally Funded
– ANDS/ARCS
• There’s a lot of this happening at the moment.
– From other sources
Innovation Projects
• Intersect undertakes “Innovation Projects”
as a part of the services provided to our
member institutions.
• http://www.intersect.org.au/innovation-projects
Innovation Projects
• The committee:
– Bases selection on a strategic view of the
eResearch needs of NSW and Australia. This
will draw on:
• NSW & national research priorities;
• needs of researchers at member institutions;
• the value and quality of the supported research.
– Devises projects that meet the needs of
researchers across institutions and even across
disciplines.
– Selects projects to provide benefits fairly
across our member institutions.
Innovation Projects Selection Process
NSW Govt’s
Strategic
Research
Priorities
Determine
NSW
eResearch
Strategic
Needs
Consultation
across
member
institutions
Consultation
with other
key
stakeholders
NSW
eResearch
Strategic
Needs Report
Proposed List
of Candidate
Projects
➌
➊
Define
Candidate
Projects
➋
Review
Candidate
project
scope
documents
List of
Candidate
Projects
➎
…
➍
…
Assessment
Suggested
Priority
List
➏
Review and
Select Projects
Intersect Team
Intersect Executive
Innovation Committee
Priority
List &
Selection
24
A good example: GDM
• Genomic Data Management
• Our next innovation project
GDM – Why is it a good example?
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A clear strategic direction
A clear need
Lots of collaborators
Lots of institutions amongst our members
Other groups will benefit as well
For today…
• We want to understand your needs
– …today is the start of that process.
• Follow Jim’s lead – he has some
questions/conversation starters.
• Keep the GDM example in the back of
your mind during your discussions.
• Do please call on your local eResearch
Analyst!