Federation Connected Services
Federation Connected Services

Microscopy Australia – Strengthening the Evidence Behind Research Impact

Date 9 October 2026

Overview

Microscopy Australia and AAF are exploring how persistent identifiers can connect researchers, instruments, facilities and research outputs.

The goal is to help research infrastructure providers reduce manual reporting, improve attribution and build stronger evidence of the impact their facilities create.

Research infrastructure underpins scientific discovery. Every day, researchers use specialist instruments, facilities and expertise to generate data, publish findings and contribute new knowledge.

For Microscopy Australia, understanding how those activities contribute to research outcomes is becoming increasingly important. Yet the information needed to demonstrate impact is often spread across multiple systems, facilities, instruments, datasets and publications.

“When it comes to reporting and impact tracking, we often had to work backwards. We could see a publication, but then we needed to confirm which instrument was used, whether it belonged to CMM and whether it should be included in our reporting. It was really a manual process, digging out information across multiple facilities and systems.”

Dr Rubbiya Ali, Data Informatics Manager, UQ Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis

Through AAF’s Trust and Identity Pathfinder and Capability Incubator Program, Microscopy Australia partnered with AAF to explore how persistent identifiers could help address these challenges.

  • The challenge of connecting research activity to research impact

    Though these elements all form part of the same research story, the connections are not always easy to trace.

    As research becomes more collaborative and data-intensive, maintaining those relationships over time becomes increasingly difficult.

    Why stronger evidence matters

    For Microscopy Australia, impact reporting is about more than counting publications.

    Facilities need to understand how infrastructure is being used, what outcomes it supports and how the value of that infrastructure can be demonstrated to researchers, partners and funders.

    Without reliable links between instruments, datasets and publications, attribution becomes more difficult, reporting becomes more labour-intensive and evidence of impact can be harder to assemble.

    The challenge is particularly significant in a distributed research environment where multiple facilities, institutions and systems contribute to a single project.

  • Exploring a better way

    The project investigated how machine-readable connections could be created between researchers, instruments, facilities, datasets and publications.

    Rather than focusing on a single technology platform, the work explored how existing identifiers such as ORCID iDs, instrument identifiers and organisational identifiers could work together to create stronger and more consistent links across the research lifecycle.

    Reducing friction for researchers

    The benefits extend beyond facility reporting.

    Persistent identifiers can also reduce administrative effort for researchers, improve discoverability and strengthen recognition of research contributions.

    Many of the foundations already exist through systems such as ORCID and institutional research infrastructure. The opportunity is to connect those systems more effectively.

    “Researchers won’t need to worry about where a dataset came from, which instrument was used, or whether they’ve recorded all those details for future publications,” said Rubbiya.

    “If everything is digitally available in FAIR-enabled repositories and linked through persistent identifiers across the data lifecycle, that information is already there when they need it. Less tension, more work.”

    For researchers, that means spending less time managing information and more time focusing on their work. For facilities, it means more efficient reporting, stronger attribution and better evidence of impact.

  • Benefits beyond microscopy

    One of the most significant findings from the project was that these challenges are not unique to microscopy.

    Many research infrastructure providers face similar issues when attempting to connect researchers, facilities, services and research outputs across the research lifecycle.

    The approach explored through the incubator offers a practical example of how persistent identifiers can help bridge those gaps and provide stronger evidence of research impact.

    The lessons learned through the project may help other research infrastructure communities improve attribution, strengthen reporting and better understand the value they create.

    Demonstrating the value of infrastructure

    The project remains a work in progress, with opportunities to further test and apply the approach in real-world environments.

    For AAF, the incubator demonstrates how trust, identity and persistent identifiers can support more effective research infrastructure and collaboration.

    “Research infrastructure creates value through the outcomes it enables,” said AAF CEO Heath Marks. “By helping organisations connect researchers, services and research outputs more effectively, trusted identity and persistent identifiers can make it easier to understand, demonstrate and maximise that value.”

    As research becomes increasingly collaborative, data-intensive and distributed, approaches like these can help researchers and infrastructure providers better understand the contribution they make to discovery, innovation and future research outcomes.