CEO's Update
An interesting read: Decolonising the Hunt for Dinosaurs and Other Fossils from the New York Times explains that younger palaeontologists are working to overcome some historical legacies of their discipline and change how people learn about natural history. Image: Mariem Hbaieb
March already! How nice is it to be in 2021, too? And what a momentous year it will be for us at AuScope. The Australian Government is in the process of kicking off the 2021 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap process, which involves the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) consulting widely with the research community to develop recommendations regarding future research infrastructure investment in this country. Translational research, resilience and optimisation of existing infrastructures are likely to feature in the Roadmap.
Thanks to you, our community, we are very well placed going into this roadmap. Our community led Strategy 2020 – 2030 and 5-Year Investment Plan will form the foundation of submissions from AuScope on behalf of Australia’s Earth and geospatial science communities to this process. As you know, the Downward Looking Telescope (DLT) concept is explained within these documents as the emerging and future research infrastructure system that will form and guide prospective investment.
AuScope’s Strategy 2020 – 2030 outlines seven Goals, the first of which is to enhance AuScope’s capability to enable national geoscience innovation via the Downward Looking Telescope (DLT). This DLT is an integrated and augmented capability, like a telescope that will allow researchers to ‘see’ into Earth, and capture, focus and analyse observational data to help answer pressing national geoscience questions. For more detail, please read AuScope’s accompanying 5-Year Investment Plan (excerpt pictured).
There will be many opportunities for all of you to have input into this process as well. It would be a great help to us if you do make submissions directly to DESE or have an opportunity to engage with the Roadmap Committee, for you to reinforce the messaging that we are using around the DLT. If you need any advice or support in this process, please do not hesitate to contact me and Jo Condon.
I hope you enjoy this Quarterly News edition and can join us for the ride in 2021.
Warm regards, Tim Rawling