Today’s research for tomorrow’s challenges – building national research infrastructure across the full data life cycle

As the volume and complexity of Earth science data continues to grow, driven by the availability of advanced instrumentation and requirement for new approaches to address geoscience questions and challenges, there is an increasing need for robust, end-to-end approaches to data management across the full data life cycle. Earth science datasets are, however, notoriously heterogeneous, spanning disciplines from geochemistry to geophysics and Earth observation, at observation levels from nanoscale to global, and amassing data volumes from megabytes to multi-petabyte collections. Yet for the vast majority of these datasets, the ‘raw’ observations collected by instrumentation, or Primary Observational Datasets (PODs), are not routinely reported or associated with the downstream, analysis-ready data products used to inform scientific or policy decisions. To enable reproducible and repurposable science particularly in a context where technical advances continue to push the data requirements upstream towards the primary observations, these PODs must be preserved for potential future applications and linked with the outputs they underpin.  

AuScope is Australia’s national geoscience research infrastructure funded through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), supports the geoscience community by providing data, data products, and software that align with the FAIR and CARE principles. Recognising that a single, monolithic repository cannot serve all disciplines, data types, or user communities, AuScope is developing an Earth Science Data Ecosystem that enables seamless access to PODs hosted across high-performance compute–data (HPC-D) and cloud environments, and provides pathways to connect raw observational data with curated, analysis-ready products delivered through distributed platforms and portals. A critical component of this ecosystem is strengthening digital infrastructure at the point of data generation and associating that primary observation with the published output. To address persistent challenges associated with manual data transfer, incomplete metadata capture, and limited long-term reuse, AuScope has embarked on the scoping and implementation of an Australian-first repository and capture system for PODs in geochemistry. By strengthening digital infrastructure at the point of data generation and embedding standards throughout the data life cycle, this work supports more efficient, interoperable, and collaborative Earth science research, maximising the long-term value of publicly funded data.