The Australian Government's Innovation Report

Research Accessibility Framework
On 1 May 2004, the Prime Minister announced that the Australian Government would establish an accessibility
framework for publicly funded research as part of Backing Australia’s Ability – Building our Future through Science
and Innovation.
The accessibility framework is intended to provide a strategic framework to improve access to research
information, outputs and infrastructure. It will be an agreed system-wide approach for managing research
outputs and infrastructure so that they are discoverable, accessible and shareable, and so the quality of research
outcomes can be improved, duplication reduced and research activities and reporting better managed.
The Australian Government is keen to ensure that, through the establishment and linkage of electronic digital
repositories, national scholarly output and research data derived from Australian Government funding will be
available to researchers and the wider community, subject to safeguards for privacy and protection of
confidential and commercially sensitive information.
The framework will embrace a range of e-research environments that are emerging from the changing innovative
practices of scientists and scholars in all disciplines. It will be largely based on existing investments in research
infrastructure, which are laying the foundations for e-research in which advanced computational, collaborative
data acquisition and management services are available to researchers through high-performance networks.
More information about the accessibility framework can be found at: www.dest.gov.au/sectors/
research_sector/policies_issues_reviews/key_issues/accessibility_framework/
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