APPN connects researchers through Australian Access Federation
Australian Plant Phenomics Network’s (APPN) connection to the identity Federation operated by the Australian Access Federation (AAF) enables national and international researchers with open access to their state-of-the-art phenotyping.
The connection means scientists from around the globe, identified by the Federation, can access a wide range of data generated through the APPN and explore innovations for climate resilient crops.
APPN’s CEO Richard Dickmann says phenomics data captured at the APPN has the power to transform lives.
“By exploring how the genetic makeup of an organism determines its appearance, function and performance, phenomics can help us tackle the most pressing challenges of our time – including global food shortages, the demand for alternative fuels, fewer resources and climate change,” he explains.
AAF provides a national authentication service for researchers and education institutions and has operated the Australian identity Federation for 15 years.
The Federation is a globally connected service consisting of a trust framework of policy and technology. This framework delivers world class single-sign-on that allows researchers across organisational boundaries to collaborate and access online resources within a trusted environment. The connection is seamless and often goes unnoticed.
AAF’s CEO Heath Marks said, “By logging in via the Federation, our researchers only need their institutional credentials to access a variety of services from other organisations including file transfer, data storage, compute, collaboration tools and portals, scientific instruments, administrative systems, and research resources across multiple national and international organisational boundaries.
“Over 1,000 researcher logins to APPN’s The Plant Accelerator® (TPA®) Tools service have occurred since 2022 via the AAF.”
TPA Tools allows users to access images and analyse data in real time. Researchers at APPN’s Adelaide node can use TPA Tools to exert greater control over their experiments and monitor progress offsite.
George Sainsbury, Data Infrastructure & Software Engineer at The Plant Accelerator® worked with AAF to incorporate the access option into TPA Tools.
“AAF’s Federation Manager lets us provide staff and customers with secure access to our systems and data by providing a federated, trusted authentication service,” George explains.
“Users can log into TPA Tools using Federation Manager and then we can be confident they are who they say they are in order to provide access sensitive research data or phenotyping systems.
“The common refrain from software engineers working with authentication systems is that you should never build your own, and having AAF provide an easy-to-use solution for the research sector was invaluable.”
Heath Marks says, “Looking forward, we see a national research system which is increasingly connected, and one in which seamless trust and identity services remove silos, opens access to research knowledge, and helps Australian researchers, industry and the community make great advances. We look forward to continuing our work with our leading research facilities to enable their important work.”
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19 December 2024
TPA Growth Chamber