Improving Indigenous Research Capabilities Phase Two

Project description

The Improving Indigenous Research Capabilities initiative sits within ARDC’s program to build the HASS & Indigenous Research Data Commons. Phase 1 (2022–2024) established social and technical architectures and core Indigenous data assets. Phase 2 (2024–2028) builds on the foundations of Phase 1, extending our Indigenous Data Catalogue, resources, and capability-building. Our aim is to enact Indigenous data governance by developing infrastructure from the ground up, embedded within catalogue profiles, workflows, and tools that embed authority and protocols. The goal of this approach is to empower Indigenous peoples through data and advancing self-determination in everyday institutional practice.

The IDN leads this project in partnership with the ARDC, leading universities, Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, government agencies, the GLAM sector and industry, broadening the application of Indigenous Data Governance (IDG) principles across national institutions to ensure Indigenous research data is ethically managed, discoverable, and reuseable.

Phase 2 is distinguished by its community-led governance models and commitment to capacity building through training, internships, and collaborative research. It sets new benchmarks for how Indigenous communities can lead and shape national and international research data ecosystems, making it a model for Indigenous data infrastructure worldwide.

The project is underpinned by a core Foundation Stream, which focuses on Indigenous data governance activities and provides the conceptual and operational framework for four interlinked sub-streams of activities (see Figure 1). Together, these streams advance a nationally significant and globally relevant program of work that embeds Indigenous authority, knowledge systems and governance protocols into research data infrastructure:

1. Development and extension of Indigenous data catalogue resources and extensions, enhancing metadata standards to reflect Indigenous epistemologies and cultural protocols.
2. Design of Indigenous spatio-temporal frameworks and infrastructure, advancing the representation of Indigenous geographies and temporalities within national data systems.
3. Strategic capability building for Indigenous data futures, fostering community-led expertise and leadership in data governance, stewardship, and innovation.
4. Establishment of Indigenous data repositories and facilitation of data rematriation, ensuring the ethical return, custodianship, and control of data to Indigenous communities

Chief Investigators

Lead Investigator

Laureate Professor Marcia Langton (UoM)

Chief Investigators:

Associate Professor Kristen Smith (UoM)

Dr Andrea Clarke (UoM)

Prof Yalmay Yunupiŋu (UoM)

Professor Lisa Palmer (UoM)

Dr Anthea Skinner (UoM)

Michael Aird (UQ)

Adegboyega Adeniran (ANU)

Professor Kerrie Mengersen (QUT)

Becki Cook (QUT)

Dr Bernadette Hyland-Wood (QUT)

Dr Fadwa Al-Yaman (AIHW)

Associate Professor Paul Secombe (ANZICS CORE)

Shaila Chavan (ANZICS CORE)

Dr Sarah Schmidt (AIATSIS)

Michael Burn (AIATSIS)

Isaac Torres (KAHRA)

Professor Peter Anderson (UNE)

Dr Nick Car (KurrawongAI)

Project Team

Jamie Feiss (UoM)

Awhina Gray (UoM)

Casey Haseloff (UoM)

Isy Oderberg (UoM)

Funding

$4,360,200

Improving Indigenous Research Capabilities is a co-investment partnership with the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) through the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons (DOI: 10.3565/pr3g-s109). The ARDC is enabled by the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).