GUARDIANS: Uplifting Australian human genomics research data infrastructure at national scale
Uplifting Australian human genomics research data infrastructure at national scale
The AAF are partnering with national research infrastructures to implement Australia’s Trust and Identity Framework, enabling seamless and secure access by researchers, industry and government to instrument, analysis and compute offerings.
As experts in trust and identity, the Australian Access Federation (AAF) have partnered with the Australia BioCommons’ GUARDIANS project to implement best practice identity and access management solutions to improve Australia’s capacity to share human omics research data securely and responsibly.
The GUARDIANS (human Genomics Uplift for Australia through Research Data Infrastructure At National Scale) project is accelerating human genomics and related omics research in Australia, through the development of world-class digital infrastructure. The GUARDIANS project will empower Australian researchers to easily and securely discover, access, analyse and use human genomics data across national infrastructure, using the latest tools and resources.
Australia’s human genomics research datasets present a vast array of opportunities to enhance our understanding of health, diseases and precision medicine. However, data fragmentation, access barriers, and governance limit their use. The GUARDIANS project is addressing these challenges by developing standardised interfaces, harmonised data formats, ethical access rules, and interoperable institutional policies and technologies. Allowing enable researchers to discover, access, and analyse human genomics research data infrastructure at a national scale.
AAF’s Head of Trust and Identity Strategy and Futures John Scullen states, “We look forward to collaborating with our GUARDIANS partners to bolster researchers’ capacity to easily and securely discover, access, analyse and use human genomics data across national infrastructure.”
The AAF are implementing processes and policies required to implemented shared identity and access management for streamlined, secure researcher access, informed by international best practice. The AAF and the national research infrastructure community have adapted the AARC Framework for the Australian research ecosystem. The Authentication and Authorisation for Research Collaborations (AARC) Framework has been adopted internationally by many earth sciences, life sciences, astronomy, high energy physics, the arts, and humanities research institutes. Australian researchers regularly collaborate with these facilities and a consistent approach to authentication and authorisation infrastructure will support ongoing national and international collaboration.
The GUARDIANS project builds on the lessons learnt in BioCommons’ Human Genomes Platform Project (HGPP).
The AAF played a crucial role in HGPP by implementing best practice identity and access management solutions, to improve Australia’s capacity to access and share human omics research data. The HGPP investigated and prototyped a suite of services aimed at bolstering Australia’s capacity to share human omics research data securely and responsibly.
The GUARDIANS partners include:
- Australian BioCommons
- Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute
- Children’s Cancer Institute
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research
- National Computational Infrastructure
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
- The University of Melbourne
- The University of Melbourne Collaborative Centre for Genomic Cancer Medicine
- The University of Sydney
Find out more:
- GUARDIANS Project: https://www.biocommons.org.au/guardians
- HGPP: https://aaf.edu.au/human-genomes-platform-project/
- AAF Projects & Case Studies: https://aaf.edu.au/projects/
Discover AAF projects and case studies
Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre
AAF has partnered with the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre exploring options to provide seamless and secure access to their supercomputing service using federated identities.
The Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre is one of two Tier-1 high-performance computing facilities in Australia. Its primary function is to accelerate scientific research for the benefit of the nation. Pawsey’s service and expertise in supercomputing, data, cloud services and visualisation enables research across a variety of fields including astronomy, life sciences, medicine, energy, resources and artificial intelligence.
Pawsey’s supercomputing systems play a critical role, for a wide range of research disciplines and features as an important part of many researchers’ workflows. This Incubator will raise the security profile of Pawsey and provide a single user account across their ecosystem. The Pawsey Incubator is a foundational building block in trust and identity for national research infrastructure and plays a critical role in the implementation of trust and identity across the sector.
Microscopy Australia
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.
National Imaging Facility
AAF has partnered with the National Imaging Facility (NIF) exploring improved access and collaboration for complex multi-site human imaging projects and medical trials using sensitive data.
NIF is Australia’s advanced imaging network, and provides open access to flagship imaging equipment, tools, data and analysis. NIF aims to maintain Australia’s world leading role in advanced imaging technology and make its capabilities accessible to all Australian medical researchers to solve challenges across research and industry. They enable research in areas such as mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), epilepsy and melanoma. NIF are critical to research translation, clinical trials and the commercialisation of medical products.
As one of AAF’s Trust and Identity Pathfinder Incubators, we have been working with NIF on enhancing their access — providing NIF partners, institutional researchers and external users with the opportunity for improved access and collaboration when undertaking complex, multi-site human imaging projects such as national clinical trials that use sensitive data.
Contact the AAF
If you would like to discuss trust and identity for your organisation, please contact us and one of our project managers will be in contact.
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