Australian Plant Phenomics Network (APPN)

Australian Plant Phenomics Network’s (APPN) connection to the identity Federation operated by the Australian Access Federation (AAF) enables national and international researchers with open access to their state-of-the-art phenotyping.  

The APPN is a national research infrastructure that accelerates the development of new and improved crops and sustainable agricultural practices. APPN’s network of environment phenotyping facilities, mobile units and field sites is strategically spread across Australia’s diverse climate zones and involves nine renowned plant research organisations located in WA, SA, ACT, Vic, NSW and Qld.  

This network supports research to address complex challenges for food production and environmental science by providing sophisticated plant growth, imaging and image analysis for high-throughput plant phenotyping in the lab and in the field.  

Scientists from around the globe, connected by the Federation, can access a wide range of resulting data and explore innovations for climate resilient crops. 

APPN’s CEO Richard Dickmann says, “Plant phenomics enables science that has the power to transform our lives. By exploring how the genetic makeup of an organism determines its appearance, function and performance, phenomics can help us tackle the most pressing challenges of our time – including global food shortages, the demand for alternative fuels, fewer resources and climate change. 

“Phenomics data captured at the APPN enables the more rapid discovery of molecular markers and faster germplasm development, aimed at improving crop yields including the tolerance of major crops and other agriculturally important plants to biotic and abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity and a broad spectrum of plant diseases; putting the APPN at the forefront of the race to meet global food demands in the future.” 

AAF has operated the Australian identity Federation for 15 years and is a vital part of the Australian eResearch infrastructure landscape and the national Trust and Identity capability for Australia’s network of national research infrastructures funded by the Australian Government.   

The AAF provides a national authentication service for researchers and education institutions. The Federation is a globally connected service consisting of a trust framework of policy and technology. This framework delivers world class single-sign-on that allows researchers across organisational boundaries to collaborate and access online resources within a trusted environment. The connection is seamless and often goes unnoticed.  

AAF’s CEO Heath Marks said, “By logging in via the Federation, our researchers only need their institutional credentials to access a variety of services from other organisations including file transfer, data storage, compute, collaboration tools and portals, scientific instruments, administrative systems, and research resources across multiple national and international organisational boundaries. 

“Over 1,000 researcher logins to APPN’s The Plant Accelerator® (TPA®) Tools service have occurred since 2022 via the AAF.”  

George Sainsbury, Data Infrastructure and Software Engineer at APPN says, “AAF’s Federation Manager enables us to provide internal staff and customers secure access to our systems and data by providing a federated, trusted authentication service. Users can log into TPA Tools and then we can be confident that they are who they say they are and allow them to access sensitive research data or phenotyping systems.”

“The common refrain from software engineers working with authentication systems is that you should never build your own, and having AAF provide an easy-to-use solution for the research sector is invaluable.”

Richard Dickmann, explains, “TPA® was the first automated high-throughput phenotyping facility in Australia and remains paramount in both its scale and open-access policy. The infrastructure attracts researchers from Australia and overseas, and offers a range of imaging systems – including RGB, infrared, fluorescence, hyperspectral and X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) – to facilitate innovative high-quality research into plant performance in different environments.” 

“TPA Tools allows users to access images and analyse data in real time. Researchers at APPN’s Adelaide node can use TPA Tools to exert greater control over their experiments and monitor progress offsite.”  

Heath Marks says, “Looking forward, we see a national research system which is increasingly connected, and one in which seamless trust and identity services remove silos, opens access to research knowledge, and helps Australian researchers, industry and the community make great advances. We look forward to continuing our work with our leading research facilities to enable their important work.”  

To find out more, visit:  

• https://www.plantphenomics.org.au/ 

• https://aaf.edu.au/ 

AAF has partnered with Microscopy Australia exploring impact tracking through persistent identifiers (PIDs).

Microscopy Australia are a consortium of university-based microscopy facilities that more than 3,500 researchers across Australia use each year. They aim to empower Australian science and innovation by making advanced microscopes accessible to all researchers.

One of the greatest challenges in research is to connect and report on distributed services and this incubator explores how richer reporting, impact tracking and usage data can be provided through ORCID iDs and PIDs across national research infrastructure.