Monash e-Research Portal (MeRP) Project

The overall aim of e-Research is to harness IT to do research better.  The Monash e-Research Portal (MeRP) project is a multiyear project to make researchers lives easier.  The MeRP project will provide a single integrated and tailored web environment for researchers, providing an easy-to-use and integrated web workspace (‘one-stop-shop’) for researchers to access all the IT tools and support they need.  The MeRP project will bring together activities from diverse areas into a Researchers Desktop IT environment. A number of activities were undertaken in 2007.

Collaboration tools

A key aim of e‑Research is the use of IT to facilitate better research collaborations, within Monash, nationally and internationally, within and between disciplines.  A range of capabilities, including those to be provided by ICE and the AAF will be introduced to assist Monash researchers collaborate. In particular we are introducing:

• EVO next generation "access grid" and video conferencing technology.
• Sakai  all-in-one collaboration environment.
• Lotus Quickr collaboration environment.
• Confluence enterprise wiki.

Information Management for e-Research (IM4eR)

Identify and provide a continuum of information management and digital asset management environments to meet the needs of different research activities.  A joint sub-project of the LaRDS, MeRP and ICE IM4WG projects to identify and provision suitable data management environment/s for large research data sets, in particular digital image libraries and audio/video/multimedia digital asset management.  Solutions including SRB, Mediaflux and ARROW will address a wide variety of data types including:  audio, video, multimedia, digital imaging (still, movie and through to 5D imaging), simulations, instrument data, databases, documents and software.

Custom tools and advice

Provision of discipline-specific and custom tools, custom GUIs and the custom configuration of software and services are important requirements to meet the specific needs of researchers.  The MeRP project aims to carry-forward the successes of the “embedded IM/ICT professional working alongside the researcher” concept piloted under the DART initiative. We have introduced a range of rapid application development environments including:

• Mediaflux from SGI for XML and digital asset management systems
• Top Team for custom requirements gathering
• Sun Java Studio Enterprise for Java systems
• Application Express for Oracle systems

And we are considering the use of:

• Eclipse for Lotus

Workflow systems, LIMS and grid tools

Provision of a range of IT tools including grid computing environments such as Nimrod; workflow systems and algorithm workbenches such as Kepler, Taverna and MyGrid; and Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS).

Discovery tools - What’s happening at Monash

Monash is a large organisation.  Researchers find it hard to know what other researchers at Monash are doing, and hence what opportunities might exist for collaboration, and find it hard to know what IT services are available that might assist their research endeavours.  MeRP will provide improved flow of information between researchers and between researchers and IT service providers:

• A new Research tab has been added to the  my monash portal  as a single consolidated place for researchers to go to find all the tools, services, support and information they need.
• In conjunction with the RaIS project, provide improved access to information about what other researchers are doing, by harnessing and integrating information already recorded in the ROPES and related Monash Research Information Systems.
• Information about ITS services for researchers, how to use them, how to access them.
• Improving Monash web sites.  A recent success in this regard was ITS’s upgrade  of the Monash web search engine to Google, greatly improving the accessibility of Monash web content to researchers.
• Monash e‑Research Centre web site is continuously enhanced to provide information about facilities and support for researchers.

Administrative systems

MeRP will provide simple things to streamline administrative processes around research, so as to improve researcher productivity and reduce manual paperwork (environmentally friendly), such as:

• Make form filling easier, more electronic, and better integrated with less repetition and manual rekeying.
• Notification of calendar of events and key dates, such as seminars, conferences and grant applications.
• Grant application processes.
• Access to research facilities.
• High performance computing:  Provision of a unified request process for access to Monash, VPAC and APAC high performance computing facilities.
• Booking systems for other research infrastructure such as microscopy facilities.