HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Summer School 2026

The Summer School aims to empower participants with practical knowledge, build digital skills, and help inspire new research outcomes within the humanities, arts, social sciences (HASS), and Indigenous fields of study. Participants will collaborate in an interactive group setting while networking with like-minded researchers and subject matter experts.

Ballarat is a 90 minute train or car journey from the Melbourne CBD, so it is easy to plan your trip.

Over 2 days, participants will be involved in interactive workshops, discussions, mentoring, networking and formal presentations to:

• learn skills to use digital research tools
• discover frameworks and workflows for impactful digital research
• build networks for future collaborative projects using HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons infrastructure.

The Summer School is free of charge for researchers based in Australia thanks to the support of the ARDC HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons. Lunch and morning and afternoon tea are provided each day. Travel and accommodation must be covered by the participants. 8 travel bursaries of $800 each are available, with applications closing on Tuesday 6 January 2026 - see below for more information.

Who should attend?

Researchers in humanities, arts, social sciences and Indigenous domains, especially higher degree researchers (HDRs) and early to mid- career researchers (EMCRs).

Program and workshop information

Download the Program and workshop details. This may change closer to the event.

Find out what to expect at Summer School 2026

An hour long webinar about What to Expect at the ARDC HASS and Indigenous Summer School 2026 was run on 18 November. It outlined everything you need to know about Summer School, what a previous attendee experienced and included workshop leaders talking about what will be covered. Attendees asked questions like "Is it easy to get to Ballarat?" (A:Yes!) and "Will I be able to attend all workshop streams with a really old laptop?" (A: Yes for all), and more.

The recording is now available on the ARDC YouTube channel.

What will participants do at Summer School?

• Participate in networking, mentoring and plenary sessions
• Hear case studies about the "Shock of the New in Adelaide" theatre project and using AI to identify handwritten text in digitised botanical samples.
• Attend 4 hands-on workshops in a single research stream over 2 days.
• Share your expertise or request topics led by fellow participants in the Explore and Expand sessions.

What is in the workshop streams?

Streams run concurrently. There are 4 workshops in each stream over the 2 days. You will select one stream when you register for your ticket, and complete the workshops for that stream.

Before you select "register", please read the Program and workshop details document, which provides more detail about each workshop and the preparation required.

Stream A: Working with Indigenous data

A hands-on introduction to the key tools, frameworks, and principles for working with Indigenous data in your research.

Led by Andrea Clarke(University of Melbourne), Kristen Smith (University of Melbourne) and Nic Car (KurrawongAI)

• Workshop A1: Onboarding and Indigenous data, FAIR and CARE
• Workshop A2: Introduction to metadata for Indigenous data
• Workshop A3: Creating and applying metadata
• Workshop A4: Contributing to the Indigenous Data Network Catalogue

Stream B: Sustainable data for Humanities and Indigenous Studies researchers

A practical introduction to basic ideas of data management in line with two important sets of principles, FAIR and CARE.

Led by Simon Musgrave and Rosanna Smith (University of Queensland)

• Workshop B1: Onboarding and data management for sustainability
• Workshop B2: Metadata for sustainable data
• Workshop B3: The importance of licences
• Workshop B4: Using Crate-O to describe data and build a crate

Stream C: Collecting and analysing data from social media platforms

Tools and practices for collecting and analysing research data from social media platforms.

Led by Bogdan Mamaev (Deakin University), Amanda Lawrence (RMIT), Robert Fleet (QUT) and James Li (QUT)

• Workshop C1: Onboarding and using social media platforms in research
• Workshop C2: Browser-based tools to collect data
• Workshop C3: Data download packages to collect data
• Workshop C4: Data dashboards to analyse textual data

Stream D: Answering social science questions using administrative data with R

A hands-on introduction to working with and analysing government administrative data using R, with a focus on answering social science research questions.

Led by Matthew Curry and Mahnoosh Hassankhani (University of Queensland)

• Workshop D1: Onboarding and Introduction to R, RStudio, and government data
• Workshop D2: Using R to explore administrative data
• Workshop D3: Manipulating data and data sets in R
• Workshop D4: Regression analysis and interpreting results in R

Expand and Explore Session

For the last one-hour session of day 1, Summer School participants will run sessions they would like to see or share. We will decide what these will be together in the plenary session. Want to expand on something from your workshop? Have a research problem you would like help with? Want to share your research project and hear about others? You can see and register potential topics here.

Travel Bursaries

The ARDC is pleased to offer 8 travel bursaries, each worth $800, for the 2026 HASS and Indigenous RDC Computational Summer School for people based in Australia. The travel bursaries support the attendance and participation of HDR students and ECMRs in the Summer School.

To apply for a travel bursary, please complete the Travel Bursary Application Form Apply now.

Applications for travel bursaries close COB Tuesday 6 January 2025. We aim to notify all applicants of the outcomes by Tuesday 13 January.

Important

Code of Conduct. To make this a welcoming and friendly event for all, participants are expected to be aware of and follow the Code of Conduct for ARDC Activities

Bring a laptop. Summer School is an in-person event. Workshops will require laptop computers (PC or Mac). Devices such as mobile phones and tablets will NOT be suitable for the workshops. Please bring your own laptop and charging cords.

Workshop preparation. You will select one stream of 4 workshops that build on each other over 2 days. Each stream starts with an introductory workshop to find out what participants would like to learn, explain key concepts and ensure everyone is set up with any software or logins they need. The Program and workshop details outlines what you will learn and any equipment you need or set up to do beforehand. Please make sure you are prepared for the workshops you will attend.

Food. Light refreshments and lunch will be provided.

Recording. Parts of this event may be recorded and published by the ARDC. This may include your contributions during a session. ARDC respects the privacy of individuals. Information collected is in accordance with the ARDC Privacy Policy

Cancelling/modifying your attendance. We understand that plans change, and you may need to cancel or modify your attendance at the Summer School. If you need to make changes, please let us know via the cancellation form.

Will the session be recorded?

The Day 1 morning plenary and Day 2 cases studies will be recorded and published online.

Other sessions rely on face-to-face communication and collaboration, so they will not be recorded.

About the ARDC

At the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), we’re accelerating Australian research and innovation by driving excellence in the creation, analysis and retention of high-quality data assets. We partner with the research community and industry to build leading-edge digital research infrastructure to provide Australian researchers with competitive advantage through data.

The ARDC is enabled by the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).

About the ARDC’s HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons

In collaboration with Indigenous Australians, the research community, industry and government, the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons (HASS and Indigenous RDC) is harnessing research data to enhance Australian social and cultural wellbeing, and help Australia understand and preserve our culture, history and heritage.

New digital platforms and data directories are improving how researchers discover and access Australia’s rich humanities, arts, and social science (HASS) and Indigenous data and innovative analysis tools. The program is also upskilling researchers to use data-driven approaches to HASS research and apply Indigenous data governance principles.

As an engine for research translation, the HASS and Indigenous RDC enables researchers to develop and sustain cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary data collaborations at a national scale through federated models. It integrates the ARDC’s services for compute, storage infrastructure, persistent identifiers and data discovery with analysis platforms and tools that are supported by expertise, standards and best practices.

Learn more about the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons.

Further Resources

• Read about the 2025 Summer School
• HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons
• Resources for HASS and Indigenous research

Have questions?

Email contact@ardc.edu.au

To keep up-to-date on the latest digital research news and events, subscribe to the ARDC Connect newsletter. Please note that this event may be recorded and published by the ARDC. This may include your contributions during the session. Attendees are expected to comply with the Code of Conduct for ARDC Activities during this event. ARDC respects the privacy of individuals. Information collected is in accordance with the ARDC Privacy Policy.