Data-enabled social science
Understanding data infrastructure needs
for research in and across the disciplines
An initiative of Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) in partnership with Australia's five learned academies
This project is both a partnership between the ARDC and the Learned Academies and an inter-Academy partnership to support excellent data-enabled research.
The Learned Academies are a natural hub for research policy advocacy, leadership and strategic planning, and the ARDC is a natural hub for research data infrastructure. Together, these agencies can serve as key enablers in taking Australia’s research infrastructure into the information age.
The aims of the project are:
- to support and develop the capabilities of Australia’s Learned Academies to provide leadership, advocacy and planning for data-enabled research, in a collaborative and coherent manner
- to align national research data infrastructure with the strategic needs of the various research discipline
- to establish a network of data policy and planning capabilities across the Academies, and define shared agendas to support data-enabled research.
Key dates
- Apr-Aug 2021 Project planning
- Sep-Jan 2021 Consultation
- Jan-Feb 2022 Individual academy reports
- Mar-Apr 2022 Joint report finalised
- May 2022 Publication of outputs
- Jun 2022 Project closure and evaluation
Project team
This project is led by the Academy’s Policy Team, under the guidance and oversight of a Steering Group, comprising Academy Fellows and other leaders in the social science data commons space:
- Stuart Barr
- Steven McEachern
- Sarah Medland, FASSA
- David Kalisch, FASSA
- Sarah Pink, FASSA
- Maggie Walter, FASSA
- Mark Western, FASSA.
This project is managed collaboratively by the ARDC, Australia’s five Learned Academies and ACOLA. Enquiries related to the social science component of this project can be directed to our Policy analyst isabel.ceron@socialsciences.org.au.
Additional resources
- Project page in ARDC website
- 2018 Academy response to ‘National Data Infrastructure HASS Scoping Study’
- Big Data and the Social Sciences (open textbook on data science methods and tools for social science research and practice)