Easily launch applications onto your Nectar virtual machine
Adding application stacks onto your Nectar virtual machine (VM) can be a time-consuming process. Through OpenStack Murano, QCIF has made it easier for researchers to rapidly deploy commonly-used applications.
Via a simple-to-use software wizard, users provide values for required configuration options, click a few buttons and after just a few minutes, they have an installed and configured application that is ready to use.
QCIF-built Murano applications currently available through the Nectar dashboard include:
- LAMP
- Drupal
- WordPress
- LimeSurvey.
If you have other application stacks you would like included in this service, please contact the QRIScloud Help Desk:
support@qriscloud.org.au.
QFAB offers biostatistics and bioinformatics support for grant applications
QFAB provides researchers with free consultations to strengthen the bioinformatics, biostatistics and biodata content in their research grant applications.
Researchers can include the use of QFAB bioinformatics services into their grant applications to ensure the project outcomes will be guided by professionally conducted bioinformatics and demonstrating this professionalism to grant assessors.
QFAB offers a variety of bioinformatics expertise on an as-needed basis giving the maximum benefit to the research at the minimum cost. Quotes for inclusion into grant budgets are based on either the number of hours for smaller projects or the fraction of a full time equivalent person for the period required for larger ones.
For grant applications, QFAB can help with data management plans, clinical trial statistical analysis plans, experimental design, analysis methods and more.
Email
contact@qfab.org to make an appointment for video or face-to-face consultations.
Submissions open for draft 2016 Natio
nal Research Infrastructure Roadmap
Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, released the draft
2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap on Monday, 5 December, setting out priorities for planning and future investment.
The 10-year Roadmap was identified in the
National Innovation and Science Agenda as an important input to leading-edge science and continued economic growth.
Dr Finked (pictured) said the draft was developed through face-to-face consultations with more than 580 stakeholders across Australia, and the consideration of 325 submissions.
The public is invited to provide written comments on the draft Roadmap. Submissions close on
Monday, 16 January 2017. Details regarding how to provide a submission are available
here.
QUT gains two new QCIF eResearch Analysts
Samantha (Sam) Adnett and Jason D’Netto (pictured) are the new QCIF eResearch Analysts at QUT. Both will support the University's Science and Engineering Faculty and the Institute for Future Environments.
Jason holds a Bachelor of IT and Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) from QUT. In 2013–2014 he was a Research Support Specialist in QUT’s HPC department which involved helping researchers to best use available HPC resources.
Sam holds a Bachelor of Mathematics from QUT and is currently undertaking a research Masters in cryptographic algorithms. She is a former volunteer Peer Learning Facilitator at QUT and from 2014 was an Academic Personal Trainer and Team Leader at tutoring company A Team Tuition.
As QCIF eRAs, Sam and Jason will help QUT researchers make the most of their compute, data, methods, tools and service options. Please contact Sam (
s.adnett@qut.edu.au) or Jason (
j.dnetto@qut.edu.au) to discuss how they can help you with your research.
How well does your organisation publish and consume open data?
QCIF has collaborated with the
Open Data Institute Queensland to provide country-level reporting in the international platform
Open Data Pathway.
The Open Data Pathway is a self-assessment tool that assesses how well an organisation publishes and consumes open data, compared to global benchmarks, and identifies actions for improvement. The tool uses a questionnaire based on
the Open Data Maturity Model.
To provide further insight into the global benchmark, ODIQ and QCIF added
country-level statistics, allowing benchmarking of organisations at the national level as well as comparing country to country and country to global performance.
Working with Stephen Gates from ODIQ, Matt Mulholland from QCIF provided the coding and open source skills to contribute this capability to the global ODI community. If you would like to know more, please contact Gavin Kennedy:
gavin.kennedy@qcif.edu.au.
Apply for funding for Asia-Pacific collaborations
The Australian Academy of Science invites eligible Australian research organisations and businesses to apply for funding through round one of the Regional Collaborations Program.
The program will fund Australian participants to collaborate with regional and international science, research and innovation partners on solutions to shared challenges within the Asia–Pacific region.
The $3.2 million four-year program will support single-year or multi-year collaborative, multi-partner projects and non-project aligned collaborative workshops.
The deadline for applications is
8am (AEST) Monday, 16 January 2017. Further information, including eligibility criteria and the application form, can be found on the
Academy’s website.
QLD GovHack winners take the heat out of vege growing and missing person searches
A missing persons app and a vegetable heat stress warning system took out national first prizes for its Queensland researchers at this year’s GovHack.
GovHack is an annual competition held in Australia and New Zealand in which entrants use open data to develop innovations in just 46 hours. This year’s GovHack was held in 40 locations across 29–31 July and attracted more than 3,000 participants. The awards were announced in Adelaide on 22 October.
A three-man team, comprising USQ’s Dr Keith Pembleton and Associate Professor Adam Sparks, and UQ undergraduate student Gordon Grundy, won the ‘Paddock to Plate Hack’ award for their alert system for farmers about possible damaging heat events on vegetables.
The trio used data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Bureau of Meteorology and Queensland Government to predict and measure localised heat-stress events. Warnings could then be sent quickly via email or text message to vegetable growers to enable them to take preventive actions like irrigation or early harvest to minimise crop losses. The prototype is being developed into a tool that Queensland growers can use.
A Gold Coast Griffith University team won both the national ‘Creative Humanities Hack’ award and ‘Innovative Ideas Hack’ for its mobile application ‘Search Party’, and also received an ‘Honourable Mention’ for the international ‘Community Resilience Hack’ award.
The app aims to improve missing person searches by enabling volunteers to be more efficient. It combines data from the ABC, Gold Coast City Council, Queensland Government and Australian Government about missing persons to generate a GPS 'heat map' to identify areas that have not been searched.
QCIF congratulates all the Queensland teams that placed in this year’s GovHack awards. See the
GovHack website for all the national winners. GovHack 2017 will be held on 28–30 July.
Photo: L-R: Dr Keith Pembleton of USQ and Gordon Grundy of UQ working on their vegetable heat stress project at GovHack. (
Photo by Assoc. Prof. Adam Sparks, USQ.)
QCIF/RCC eResearch Analyst Dr Marlies Hankel (pictured) will be promoted from Research Fellow to Senior Research Fellow, effective from 1 January 2017.
Marlies said she was “very grateful for the recognition of my academic as well as service achievements.”
RCC Director Prof. David Abramson said he was delighted to see her promoted. “Marlies is a valuable member of our team, and has significant expertise in theoretical chemistry and supercomputing.”
Marlies’ time is split evenly between being a QCIF and RCC eResearch Analyst and working as a researcher in UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and as a member of AIBN’s Centre for Theoretical and Computational Molecular Science.
QCIF congratulates Marlies on her promotion.
Congratulations to QFAB Health Informatician Kathy Dallest (pictured) who won third prize in the UQ Association of Postgraduate Students (UQuAPS) Pitching Research Competition final held on Monday, 28 November.
Kathy is a QFAB consultant and research scholar in the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Telehealth based in UQ’s Faculty of Medicine.
Kathy’s presentation was titled ‘Improving Telehealth value propositions for sustainability: Development of a decision tool to aid health services and consumer.’
Co-ordinated by Prof. Robert Faff from UQ’s Business School, the competition provides an opportunity for pre-confirmation RHD students at UQ to practise pitching their research to an academic expert.
Finalists from each faculty pitched their research through both a written submission (structured two-pager) and a brief oral presentation at the final.
While first prize was $3,000, Kathy's efforts secured $1,000 towards her research.
A total of 50 students entered the competition this year. More information about the competition can be found
here. (
Photo by Dr Melinda Martin-Khan, UQ Faculty of Medicine.)
QCIF's Dr Nick nominated for two IMB awards
QCIF/RCC/IMB eResearch Analyst Dr Nick Hamilton (pictured) has been nominated for two Institute of Molecular Bioscience Impact Awards, one for collaboration and teamwork, the other for service and support.
Nick was the only person nominated in two categories. All IMB staff and students were eligible to be nominated for the awards.
The Collaboration and Teamwork Award recognises those who are committed to working together towards a common goal. The Service and Support Award recognises those who provide and deliver professional, helpful, high-quality service and support before, during and after the client’s needs are met.
The award ceremony will be held 3pm–5pm on Friday, 9 December in the Queensland Biosciences Precinct Auditorium at UQ.
Events
QUT's Software Carpentry workshop: "Learnt loads about my computer”
The QUT Software Carpentry workshop across 29–30 November proved immensely popular: it sold out in just a few days, 29 people registered and 32 joined the waitlist.
Those fortunate to attend learnt the command line (also known as Unix shell or Bash), version control with Git and Python.
Instructors Belinda Weaver (of QCIF) and Clinton Roy did the bulk of the teaching, with Sam Hames teaching Python. Helpers Michal Lorenc, Michal Kotrbcik, Felix Münch, Liz Cooper-Williams and Stéphane Guillou ably supported them.
The workshop feedback was very positive with attendees saying the instruction was “easy to follow”, “a good pace” and “very relevant”. One attendee said they came away with a “huge increase in knowledge on basic tools”, while another said: “already learnt loads about my computer.”
Those who missed last month’s Software Carpentry workshop should consider attending workshops at Brisbane’s
Research Bazaar, 7–9 February 2017.
Those interested in learning more about Python can attend Brisbane’s monthly ‘
BrisPy meetup’ where Python enthusiasts network and share information.
Participants, instructors and helpers at last month's QUT Software Carpentry workshop.
Scholarship program for the Open Repositories Conference now open
Applications for the
scholarship program for next year’s Brisbane-based International Conference on Open Repositories close on
Saturday, 31 December.
Scholarships provide support for a small number of full registered places for the conference through a competitive application process. It is open to librarians, repository managers, developers, and researchers in digital repositories, open scholarship, and related fields.
Applicants who submitted a presentation proposal will be given priority consideration for funding. Presentation proposal submissions closed on 30 November. See the
OR2017 website for further information.
OR2017 is scheduled to take place 26–30 June at Brisbane’s Hilton Hotel.
Save the date for 2017’s first Tech Talk
Save a date in your diary for the first NCRIS facility Tech Talk of 2017 on
Friday, 3 February, 2pm–4pm AEST.
The topic and speakers for the talk will be determined closer to the event.
QCIF, ANDS, Nectar, Intersect, VICNode, eRSA and Pawsey organise the monthly (except for December and January) Tech Talk meetings to provide a national forum for those handling the technical aspects of research data. See the QCIF website for
more information. (
Photo by Dr Nick Hamilton, QCIF/RCC/IMB.)
If you have ever attended a Software Carpentry workshop, please provide your feedback
QCIF eResearch Analyst Team Leader Belinda Weaver is surveying workshop attendees for her UQ Master of Philosophy research on 'Investigating the efficacy and usefulness of Software Carpentry training for researchers'.
moted to Senior Research Fellow
Please provide your feedback on Software Carpentry 
QRIScloud is now storing 257 data collections, with more than 5.369 PB of data ingested.