Making Research Data Available in Australia

Governmental and private initiatives in Australia are trying to make public-sector data and research data more available and of increased value for more purposes. Data is becoming more freely and openly available in the Commonwealth of Australia as a result of initiatives that span the public sector as well as the research and innovations sector. At the national level, the Commonwealth´s Gov 2.0 agenda has resulted in the Declaration of Open Government, “built on better access to and use of government-held information.”In the research sector, a National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS; http://ncris.innovation.gov.au) has operated on the assumption that research data is an integral part of research infrastructure. The Australian National Data Service (ANDS) has been funded by the Commonwealth Government to create the infrastructure to enable Australian researchers to easily publish, discover, access, and use research data.