About eResearch
The research sector worldwide is experiencing enormous change driven by advances in information and communications technology (ICT). Research is increasingly characterised by national and international multi-disciplinary collaboration and most OECD countries and APEC members are investing heavily in those capabilities and the associated coordinating mechanisms.
The term 'eResearch' encapsulates research activities that use a spectrum of advanced ICT capabilities and embraces new research methodologies emerging from increasing access to:
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Broadband communications networks, research instruments and facilities, sensor networks and data repositories;
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Software and infrastructure services that enable secure connectivity and interoperability;
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Application tools that encompass discipline-specific tools and interaction tools.
eResearch capabilities serve to advance and augment, rather than replace traditional research methodologies, but there is a growing dependence on eResearch capabilities. Improved access to knowledge and information will enable researchers to perform their research more creatively, efficiently and collaboratively across long distances and disseminate their research outcomes with greater effect. Using eResearch, researchers can work seamlessly from desk-to-desk within and between organisations.
Entirely new fields of research, hitherto unavailable, are also emerging, using new techniques for data mining and analysis, advanced computational algorithms and resource sharing networks.
Read more in this eResearch Consultation paper, dated 1 May 2008.
Read the Victorian State Government's paper, dated 2006.