Strategy
Context
Geoscience is the study of Earth, its rocks, its origins and its processes— from the centre of the core to the crust upon which we live. As our human population continues to grow, with ever-increasing demands for food, energy, space, and mineral resources, the pressure on our planet rises.
If we are to secure Australia’s natural resources, mitigate the impact of natural hazards resulting from the dynamic nature of our planet and our interactions with it, and build a low-carbon future, we must innovate in geoscience on a grand scale.
Between 2018 – 2020, AuScope led a community engagement process to develop a 10-Year Strategy (2020 – 2030) and 5-Year Investment Plan to meet national geoscience challenges in the coming decade.
In 2025, AuScope released a 5-Year Research Data Systems and Translation Strategy (2025 – 2030). Auscope’s Research Data Systems Strategy aims to help the AuScope team design and deliver research data systems that are ready for future research challenges. The Translations Strategy aims to boost industry engagement, strengthen Australia’s sovereign research capability, and make NRI useful and used by industry, government and community end-users.
Process
In 2018, our Board of Directors commissioned an Independent Review of AuScope Programs, which was enacted by Prof Neil Williams (Chair), Prof Anya Reading, Prof Peter Betts and Prof Matt King.
Additionally, we commenced a process of national engagement, starting with a two-day Strategy Workshop in Adelaide, where over 100 scientists discussed how our discipline can work better together, and what tools, data and analytics that we need to tackle national geoscience challenges of the coming decade.
Researchers from Australia’s Earth and Environmental Science communities pause in Adelaide’s Botanical Gardens between think tank sessions at AuScope’s Strategy Workshop in October.
Watch
More Info —
If you would like to know more about these two documents, or have feedback to offer, contact info@auscope.org.au
Next we developed community Ideas in a series of workshops themed by infrastructure area: field-based, laboratory and digital infrastructures. These workshops aimed to:
Recap the national geoscience challenges, the NCRIS funding opportunity and key 2018 Strategy Workshop themes: ‘4D Australia’, ‘observations’, and ‘data assimilation’;
Identify gaps in national research infrastructure and prioritise needs;
Build and test rationale for identified priority needs; and
Establish working groups that will formalise ensuing submissions.
Dr. Andrea Codd from the University of Queensland pitches an idea for digital infrastructure investment.
Finally in 2019, willing participants of the workshop series and others progressed to develop infrastructure investment proposals that form the basis of both the resultant Strategy 2020 – 2030 and 5-Year Investment Plan documents for each of the field-based, laboratory-based and digital infrastructure groupings.
The Australian Government’s commitment
AuScope’s funder, the Australian Government is committed to ensuring that Australia stays at the forefront of world-class science, research and innovation, in order to drive advances in technology and knowledge that boost productivity, create jobs, and deliver economic growth:
