Program 13 'Knowledge Brokering and Communications'

The success of the NERP TE Hub will, in part, be due to how information developed during the life of the Hub helps facilitate real improvements in sustaining the ecosystems of the Great Barrier Reef, the Wet Tropics rainforests and the Torres Strait regions. Accordingly, the Hub's research activities will be supported by a substantial knowledge brokering, communication and engagement framework. There are two primary outputs for knowledge brokering and communication. The first is the establishment and maintenance of an end-user engagement framework and the second is a suite of communication products and reporting tools including web-based communication, peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, newsletters and email updates.

The e-Atlas

A key component of Program 13 is the e-Atlas, established under the Australian Government's four-year Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF) research programme.  The e-Atlas is a website, mapping system, and set of data visualisation tools for presenting research data in an accessible form to allow greater use of this information. Its primary goal is to provide awareness of what research has been done at a given location and/or on a given topic, and for it to provide map visualisations of key datasets to support the work of environmental managers. Its secondary goal is to provide, where possible, open access to research data and their associated visualisation products, to the general community. 

The e-Atlas will host all meta-data records and project data products for all research datasets, and provide an enduring repository for raw data. The e-Atlas will also develop and host web visualisations to allow previewing and interaction with project data. This will assist scientists with data discovery and allow environmental managers to easily access and investigate research data.  The e-Atlas is a core component of the NERP TE Hub Science and Communications Plan and will serve as the primary data and knowledge repository for all NERP TE Hub projects, meeting the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities’ (DSEWPaC) requirement to deliver research outcomes to the public domain (web). The e-Atlas will also play a critical role in the delivery of research outcomes generated by the NERP TE Hub and in meeting the objective of the National Environmental Research Program (NERP), which is to improve the capacity to understand, manage and conserve Australia's unique biodiversity and ecosystems through the generation of world-class research and its delivery to Australian environmental decision makers and other stakeholders.