eResearch Collaboration Projects-supporting CSIRO's digital science and research

Background CSIRO is Australia’s largest research agency and is a recognised leader in a diverse set ofscience domains: Agricultural Sciences, Environment/Ecology, Plant and Animal Sciences,Geosciences, Chemistry and Materials Science. CSIRO also manages research infrastructurelike the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF), the Marine Research Vessel RVInvestigator and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. For many years in Australia, and also worldwide [2], research and science have undergonetransformational changes with the introduction of new instruments and advanced facilitieswith matching increases in storage and computing capabilities. Individual researchers weretaking a bespoke approach to matching these technologies and capabilities to the way thatresearch and science were carried out. Wider adoption of new practices required socialchange (in the practice of science and research) and these changes remained fragmentedand tailored to specific sciences or even projects. Organisations, by and large, variedenormously in their support of these new practices.As far back as 2007 [1], CSIRO practitioners advocated that science and researchpractices within CSIRO adapt to deal with these challenges. Much like the rest of the world,practices matured over the years: in CSIRO’s health and biosecurity, oceanographic andatmospheric research, radio astronomy, agriculture and food as well as geological andother earth sciences. However, a significant shift occured in 2018, with a formal recognition by the CSIRO Boardof the need to support the new “digital” science and research at an organisational level.CSIRO developed strategic digital transformation initiatives, including CSIRO’s ManagedData Ecosystem (MDE), Missions and the Digital Academy [4].The aim of the MDE is to connect current and new platforms in a seamless way and improveinteroperability between datasets so users will be able to easily find and work on multipledatasets. It will provide a set of tools and approaches enabling CSIRO and partners toimprove our collaboration, mining and analysis of data. CSIRO Missions are major scientific and collaborative research programs aimed at makingsignificant breakthroughs in one of six major challenges facing Australia. They include theresilient and valuable environments, food security and quality, health and well-being, futureindustries, sustainable energy and resources, and regional security. CSIRO's Digital Academy is focused on investing in the digital capability of our staff andinvolves a rethink in planning for a digitally driven research environment. It provides alearning opportunity for our staff, helping define the digital talent, skills and new ways ofworking. The Academy will help attract and retain new digital talent within the Australianinnovation system, develop new digital skills and mindsets in Australian’s scientists andfacilitate digital talent accessibility and collaboration across Australia’s innovation system.Existing Support for “Digital” Science through “eResearch” initiativesCSIRO Scientific Computing Services group has been providing a dedicated servicesince 2011 [3] This service is delivered through eResearch Collaboration Projects” (eRCPs)which now delivers specialist capabilities that includes Machine Learning, Data Analytics,Scientific Visualisation, Workflow Management and Science Data Handling into research andscience projects. The eRCP process is run as a competitive grant process and continues to be very successful. In the latest cycle, forty Scientific Computing Services specialists successfully completed anddelivered over sixty eRCPs outcomes from a total of eighty submissions. The underlyingcapabilities are delivered by members from each of teams in the Scientific ComputingServices group: Technical Solutions; Data Analytics and Visualisation; Research SoftwareEngineering; and Modelling and Dataflow. The eRCP process also provides a mechanism topromote and introduce new tools and frameworks for consumption to CSIRO’s researchcommunity eg Jupyter and R/Shiny. In the latest cycle, forty Scientific Computing Services specialists successfully completed anddelivered over sixty eRCPs outcomes from a total of eighty submissions. The underlyingcapabilities are delivered by members from each of teams in the Scientific ComputingServices group: Technical Solutions; Data Analytics and Visualisation; Research SoftwareEngineering; and Modelling and Dataflow. The eRCP process also provides a mechanism topromote and introduce new tools and frameworks for consumption to CSIRO’s researchcommunity eg Jupyter and R/Shiny. Specialists from the Scientific Computing program are then assigned to work on one or moreapproved eRCPs. Over the six-month cycle, the resource allocation is around 0.2 FTE, witheach staff member allocated 3 eRCP projects per cycle. Importantly, eRCPs are provided toCSIRO researchers and scientists at no additional charge.The eRCP has been enormously successful over the years, with demand outstrippingcapability to allocate staff to the projects. The program has demonstrated a range of usefuloutcomes including – including for example - an augmented reality tool for analysingbushfire plumes over Tasmania; a dashboard to interrogate cotton crop physiologicalmeasurements and an online platform to monitor algal blooms for multiple water bodies.Scientific Computing specialists also provide dedicated support to CSIRO researchers, basedaround the same set of core capabilities, via an entirely separate funding models known as“pan deployments” as well as secondments. In both cases, CSIRO projects fund the specialists’time at larger allocations, often extending over 12 months or more. In a sense, this acts like acontractor service for Business Units, providing them with highly specialised skills but withoutthe need to recruit new staff of their own.Future PlansCSIRO Scientific Computing will respond to the major initiatives – MDE, Digital Academy andMissions as follows:MDE - Redirect Scientific Computing expertise currently working on eRCPs and pandeployments to MDE related activities. In the first instance, these specialistswill apply their skills and domain knowledge to one of several nominatedpilots, helping design and build foundational components of the MDE. - Over time, it is anticipated that those same specialists will contribute to theongoing development and enhancement of additional MDE components inline with its progressive organisational rollout. Digital Academy - Develop/adapt training content as appropriate for the Digital Academy. Forexample, making use of existing Software Carpentry material for HPC usage,but customising appropriate aspects for our own computing environment.- Delivering training content to CSIRO staff. This has already proven verysuccessful in the machine learning area – with hundreds of staff attendingsessions - and will no doubt continue to grow over time.Missions - Scientific Computing will continue to provide CSIRO researchers with theeResearch support they need in response to the significant scientificchallenges tackling Missions. REFERENCES 1. J. A. Taylor, J. Zic, and J. Morrissey, “Building CSIRO e-Research Capabilities,” in Australasia 2008.2. T. Hey, S. Tansley, and K. Tolle, “The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive ScientificDiscovery,” Data-Intensive Sci. Discov. Microsoft Res., 2009.3. S. Moskwa, “The Accelerated Computing Initiative,” in Australasia, 2012.4. CSIRO Chief Executive's Report 2018-19: https://www.csiro.au/en/About/Ourimpact/Reporting-our-impact/Annual-reports/18-19-annual-report/part-1/chiefexecutive-reportABOUT THE AUTHOR(S) Dr John Zic is the Executive Manager of CSIRO’s Science Computing Services Mr Justin Baker is Leader of the Scientific Computing Data Analytics and VisualisationTeam.