As society relies on digital information to work, play, live and interact, the primary concern of organisations today is when data goes wrong.
Officially launching at The University of Queensland (UQ) on Friday 25 November, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Information Resilience (CIRES) is building the systems and workforce required to lead a secure data revolution.
Vice Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry AO said the ability to manage and refine data is recognised as one of the great differentiators for companies, and for organisations, all around the world.
“Information resilience is vitally important to Australia’s future wellbeing and prosperity,” Professor Terry said.
“It is very gratifying to see this trans-disciplinary approach to solving problems, especially seeing it done in collaboration with our industry and government partners.”
Centre Director Professor Shazia Sadiq said to create transformational change in Australia’s knowledge economy, we must first tackle the multi-faceted challenges of creating value from data.
“The Centre brings together end-users, key technology providers, international experts and a strong multi-disciplinary research team to guide the responsible management of data assets and provide trust in data-based solutions,” Professor Sadiq said.
“We see this as an outstanding opportunity to build capacity in Australian organisations to achieve responsible, secure and agile value creation from data.”
Headquartered at UQ, the Centre is supporting an increase in the demand for digitally skilled workers to hundreds of thousands in the coming years.
“In an increasingly digitised world, we anticipate that one of four jobs by 2025 in Australia will be for digital technology workers,” Professor Sadiq said.
“We recognise the need to increase the depth and the breadth of digital skills in order to stay internationally competitive and ensure our leadership on the world stage in a technology driven future where emerging digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation are reshaping our workplace, our industries and our daily lives.”
CIRES is a collaboration between UQ, Swinburne University of Technology (SUT) in Melbourne, and research partners Aginic, Astral, Allianz Worldwide Partners (AWP) Australia, Health and Wellbeing Queensland, Max Kelsen, Department of Education, Queensland Health, Queensland Police Service, and incoming partners IP Australia.