Govt flags IT infrastructure investment for research

The federal government has flagged possible upgrades to supercomputing, network and big data infrastructure to meet Australia's research priorities over the next decade. An issues paper [PDF] released yesterday seeks input on the research domains Australia should prioritise. This will then determine what kinds of research infrastructure needs to be upgraded or replaced to enable Australia to maintain or attain leadership in those fields. The paper acknowledges high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities as a vital piece of infrastructure necessary for Australian researchers to “maintain a competitive edge globally”.