Software as research infrastructure: How Australia’s Climate Simulator (ACCESS-NRI) enables climate researchers

In this presentation, I will explore the idea of software as research infrastructure through the lens of ACCESS-NRI—the first nationally funded Australian research infrastructure organisation based primarily around software. While funding software alongside hardware and other physical infrastructure is not uncommon, funding an entire organisation as software infrastructure remains relatively unique from a national perspective. Through the ACCESS-NRI journey so far, I will reflect on what software infrastructure really means in practice, and why ACCESS-NRI was designed as a collaborative entity, working closely with the climate research community, national supercomputing facilities, a network of university and government partners, and international collaborators. Throughout this journey, people—and the ways we work together—are central to how ACCESS-NRI operates.ABOUT THE AUTHORPaige E. Martin is passionate about building a future where scientific research is more robust, efficient, and impactful. She works at the intersection of technology and community to ensure advanced research tools are genuinely useful and widely adopted. As User Training Team Lead at Australia’s Climate Simulator (ACCESS-NRI), Paige strengthens Australia’s national science capacity by supporting climate modeling software as critical research infrastructure.Previously, Paige worked at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC in the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer, leading efforts to promote open science and maximize the impact of federally funded research. She holds a PhD in physical oceanography and brings deep expertise in large-scale data analysis, open-source software, and cloud and HPC computing. Paige is also committed to sharing research capacity with international communities. She has been a lead organizer and instructor at a West African oceanography summer school (https://coessing.org) for many years and is also a steering committee member of Pangeo (https://pangeo.io/)– an influential community for big data geoscience. -----For more information about the eResearch NZ / eRangahau Aotearoa conference, visit: https://eresearchnz.co.nz/