The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is an Australian Government supported collaborative partnership of organisations that have stewardship of Australian biodiversity data. The ALA (www.ala.org.au) provides research infrastructure that enables delivery of biodiversity information to over 45,000 unique users in research, industry and government per annum. It delivers impact and enables research excellence in fields such as biodiversity, environmental management, ecology and genetic sciences.

Integrated and consistent infrastructure and processes are fundamental to increasing value of collections and associated data. The Atlas of Living Australia has a mature industry engagement program that provides data standardisation, quality and analytical services to decision makers in all tiers of Australian government (local, state and federal). This program is built on formal partnerships between data providers (collection institutions) and analytical services (such as Virtual Laboratories and Research and Science Clouds www.ecocloud.org.au). The provision of high quality, authoritative data is critical to utilisation and uptake of these services and sector sustainability.

This presentation will showcase data service and analytical methods for decision makers within the Australian context. It will also explore how international efforts such as DiSSCo assist in data stewardship, cultural change and system enhancement.

integrated data, sustainability, decision makers

Hamish Holewa

Biodiversity_Next 2019