APO project brings $2m boost to connected platforms for public policy

APO has received a $1.4m grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) program to fund the Linked Semantic Platforms (LSP) project over 2018 and 2019. Together with contributions from partner organisations the project has an overall budget of around $2m over two years.

By using linked open data, knowledge graphs and collaborations across existing research infrastructure projects, the collaborative project aims to develop the next generation of decision-support tools for interdisciplinary research on critical public policy issues.

Expected outcomes include inter-operability across major social science databases and new analytical tools that will transform the research capabilities for evidence-based policy making.

Outcomes are expected on a number of different areas, including sustainable built environments and transport in urban and regional communities, social care and health in the community, work and wellbeing, digital inclusion and digital health.

The project will feature:

• New and extended policy research collections – social care, cities, transport, digital health and inclusion, work and wellbeing
• Connections across existing research infrastructure projects
• New tools and infrastructure for discovery and analysis including text mining and graph databases.

Partner organisations

• Swinburne University of Technology
• RMIT University
• University of South Australia (UniSA)
• Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) (University of Melbourne)
• Australian Data Archive (ADA) (Australian National University)
• Home Modification Clearing House (UNSW)
• Western Sydney University
• Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG)

Chief investigators

• Swinburne University: Professor Jane Farmer, Professor Dr Peter Newton, Professor Penelope Schofield, Professor Peter Graham and Professor Timoleon Sellis.
• RMIT University: Professor Julian Thomas, Professor Jago Dodson and Professor Mark Sanderson.
• UniSA: Professor Ian Olver, Professor Maureen Dollard and Professor Susan Luckman.
• AURIN: Professor Richard Sinnott,
• ADA: Dr Steven McEachern.
• UNSW: Associate Professor Catherine Bridge
• And WSU: Professor Kerry London

APO Project team

• Project manager: Amanda Lawrence, Director, APO
• Technical lead: Camilo Jorquera, Senior Developer, APO

More information is available in the flyers below. The project will kick off in March 2018.

APO LIEF 2018-2019 2 page Flyer
APO LIEF 2018-2019 5 page Flyer