Funding (2023-2028)
Core Funding
Core funding for the Australian BioCommons project comes from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) via Bioplatforms Australia, which is subcontracted to The University of Melbourne as the lead agent.
NCRIS (Bioplatforms Australia) ‘Continuity’ investment covers funding to the BioCommons over the 2023-28 period for:
100% of Leadership, Community Engagement, Training Management, Operations, Communications and International Engagement activities which are undertaken by the Coordination Hub
100% of the operational funding for the Bioplatforms Australia Data Portal and 100% of the funding for 2 operational leadership roles for the national Galaxy Australia service
50% of the funding to operate and extend core national bioinformatics services such as the Galaxy Australia service, associated “command line services,” and the Apollo Portal service
The remaining 50% funding towards these activities is collectively contributed by the following institutions: University of Melbourne, QCIF, University of Sydney, AARNet, NCI and Pawsey
NCRIS contributions towards building an Australian Cardiovascular Research Commons.
NCRIS (Bioplatforms Australia) ‘RIIP’ investment covers funding to the BioCommons over the 2024-27 period in three growth areas:
BioCloud: Integrated analysis platforms for omics research - a unified set of ‘research context aware’ digital services tailored to meet the requirements of life sciences researchers to work with molecular level biological data, using bioinformatics tools and workflows on a variety of infrastructures
Australian Tree of Life (AToL) Data Laboratories: Foundational infrastructure for accelerating biodiversity research and conservation, bringing together national ‘omics data with multidisciplinary data (environment, climate, trait), and connecting these to build a portfolio of transparent and repeatable analytical tools supporting deeply informed biodiversity and biosecurity management decisions
GUARDIANS: A translational human ‘omics data infrastructure program to drive a step change to cutting-edge national digital research infrastructure and unlock Australia’s potential in human ‘omics research through the provision of secure, scalable, and integrated data and analytics platforms.
These three projects are being delivered in collaboration with the growing network of research consortia and delivery partners established by the BioCommons during its first phase, and attract an NCRIS-matched cash and in-kind co-investment from the various partners on these projects.
Note that further NCRIS RIIP investment to the BioCommons (via the Atlas of Living Australia) is enabling us to continue to collaboratively build the Australian Reference Genome Atlas, a ‘one stop shop’ for finding omic-related data from Australian native, agricultural and invasive species.
Other investment
The BioCommons Coordination Hub actively identifies and collaborates with partners to secure additional sources of funds which can be used to leverage the NCRIS Bioplatforms Australia investment.
In the 2023-28 phase, these include:
2022 MRFF Critical Research Infrastructure grant “Building an Australian cardiovascular disease data commons” led by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute with partners Australian BioCommons, Bioplatforms Australia, the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney, 23Strands, CSL Limited and 18 cohort custodians.
In-kind contributions
In-kind contributions are made by multiple partner organisations including:
Provision of computational resource to underpin various services by University of Melbourne, QCIF, University of Queensland Research Computing Centre, NCI, Pawsey and ARDC Nectar Research Cloud
Trainer and facilitator time and effort towards our Bioinformatics Training Cooperative and broader Bioinformatics Training Program
Research community time in defining, shaping, trialling and improving the research-serving infrastructure and services instantiated and supplied through the BioCommons
Offshore investment in the technologies the BioCommons deploys and co-develops with its technology partners
Indirect costs of partner and participant organisations such as campus infrastructure and legal, financial and HR systems.
Previous funding