Globalising social science based eResearch services: some benefits and challenges

Abstract

Currently providing finance related e-research services to 30 Australian and New Zealand Member Universities, SIRCA is looking to expand this service globally with its first international university subscription achieved recently. This internationalisation initiative has brought with it many challenges but the benefits to academic research are great and global in scale. This presentation will outline how SIRCA has dealt with some of these challenges, the type of research that is now made possible by the service and the key challenges ahead.

Working with the world’s largest repository of financial, economic and news related data (over 200TB uncompressed), SIRCA has developed world leading expertise in the management of highly granular (to the mili-second), distributed (global coverage from over 2,000 sources), dynamic (always available), and complex (constant interrelated format changes) time series data. Since many of these data attributes and associated capabilities are not unique among social scientists, SIRCA is seeking to establish closer collaborative ties with other social science groups facing similar challenges. To this end, this talk will also outline some opportunities for expanding existing research, development and innovation activities both locally and internationally. Show more