Melbourne Data Analytics Platform: a team of academics enabling data-intensive and collaborative research across the University of Melbourne
The Melbourne Data Analytics Platform (MDAP) was established in 2019 as part of the Petascale Campus Initiative, a comprehensive, academic-led plan to accelerate the University of Melbourne’s capacity for data-intensive research. MDAP provides researchers with collaborative support to enhance data-driven research in disciplines in both STEMM and HASS domains. We work with researchers at all stages of the research lifecycle, from research design and data collection, all the way through to modelling, analysis, visualisation, and interpretation.
MDAP staff are academics with Key Performance Indicators focused around research support and community building (rather than more traditional research and teaching), and with a breadth of discipline and digital method expertise, enabling us to move research in new, cross-disciplinary directions. This makes us unique nationally and internationally as the overwhelming majority of research support teams working in universities and institutions across Australia and abroad is composed of professional staff. We collaborate with academics as peers and provide valuable intellectual and technical input to tackle the research problems under investigation.
In this talk, I will reflect on MDAP’s first 5 years of operations. In particular, I will discuss: a) the innovative structure and operational model of the team; b) how we have been integrating our research support model into the complex research landscape at the University of Melbourne; c) the challenges we have been facing & the successes in relation to the career development and progression of academic specialists.
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