Community-Identified Priorities as Drivers of National and Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure Planning

Understanding and responding to global environmental change requires coordinated, long-term ecosystem observations and shared analytical capabilities that transcend national boundaries. This presentation explores how national research infrastructure initiatives can use systematic community engagement to identify emerging research priorities and align them with both national and global infrastructure planning, using Australia’s Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Research Directions 2025–2035 Survey as a case study.

The survey engaged 181 researchers, practitioners and leaders across ecology, agriculture, climate science, data science and conservation, yielding over 300 distinct research questions spanning fundamental ecosystem processes, restoration strategies and landscape-scale management challenges.

Analysis revealed strong convergence around several critical themes: climate adaptation and resilience, biodiversity monitoring and conservation, ecosystem restoration trajectories, carbon cycling and climate mitigation, soil health and degradation, and the integration of traditional ecological knowledge and Western knowledge systems.

Importantly, respondents highlighted growing needs for cross-disciplinary collaboration, multi-scale observation systems linking plot-based monitoring with continental remote sensing, advanced analytical capabilities including machine learning and predictive modelling, and improved data integration across spatial and temporal scales. These findings reflect broader global trends in ecosystem science where research questions increasingly demand coordinated infrastructure investment beyond what individual nations can provide.

The TERN experience demonstrates how research infrastructure networks like the Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) can facilitate systematic horizon scanning to identify shared priorities, develop interoperable data systems and methodologies, coordinate observational capabilities across biogeographic gradients, and build collaborative analytical platforms that serve international research communities.

By aligning national infrastructure investments with community-identified priorities and fostering international collaboration, research infrastructure networks can more effectively address complex, multi-scale environmental challenges while maximising returns on public investment in ecosystem observation and analysis capabilities.