AAF’s Solutions Architect, Anurag Katariya, recently attended National Earth and Environmental Sciences Facilities Forum (NEESFF) held in Hobart, in May 2025. The NEESFF collective meet regularly to address national research infrastructure (NRI) opportunities in the Australian Earth and Environmental Sciences (E&E), ensuring that Australia’s E&E research is used to its fullest potential in tackling global environmental and sustainability challenges.
NEESFF are working together to better coordinate infrastructure investments and manage associated data assets, foster collaboration and improve data integration across multiple NRI. Without a coordinated approach, the ability to leverage the vast and diverse collection of Australian E&E data has been limited, making it challenging to address pressing national and global sustainability challenges effectively. By working together, NEESFF will maximise the use of these extensive datasets to tackle issues such as climate change, biodiversity conservation, and environmental management.
A highlight of the May meeting was participating in a tour of CSIRO’s Research Vessel (RV) Investigator. We are grateful to have had a firsthand look at the vessel’s advanced capabilities in supporting world-class scientific research.
The 94-metre ocean-class RV provides Australian researchers with the capability to conduct research anywhere across our oceans, and can accommodate 40 researchers and technical staff, and 20 crew on each voyage. With 12 dedicated laboratory and other workspaces, RV Investigator offers a flexible platform to support diverse E&E research.
Australian E&E datasets are crucial for research across various domains of the Earth’s systems. These datasets span multiple aspects, such as the geosphere (the solid Earth), biosphere (living organisms), cryosphere (ice and snow), hydrosphere (water bodies), atmosphere (air), and anthroposphere (human activity and its impact).
The types of datasets collected vary significantly in scale and complexity, ranging from simple observations made by small sensors or individuals to massive datasets spanning terabytes or even petabytes, often gathered through advanced monitoring technologies or modelling systems.
Current members of NEESFF include:
- Australian Access Federation (AAF);
- Atlas of Living Australia (ALA);
- Australia’s Climate Simulator (ACCESS-NRI);
- AuScope;
- Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN);
- Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC);
- Australian Plant Phenomics Network (APPN);
- Bioplatforms Australia;
- Geoscience Australia (GA);
- Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS);
- Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN);
- Marine National Facility;
- Bureau of Meteorology (BOM);
- E2SIP (CSIRO);
- National Computational Infrastructure (NCI);
- Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre;
- AARNet.
