Connecting the Australian AuScope Geochemistry Network into the Global OneGeochemistry Initiative

Abstract

The AuScope Geochemistry Network (AGN), established in 2019, is an Australian consortium of Earth Science institutes cooperating to develop a national, Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) distributed geochemistry data repository. AGN is part of Auscope’s 10 year strategy, which emphasises both national (e.g., the Downward Looking Telescope (DLT)), as well as international initiatives (e.g., United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)). Hence, AGN cannot operate as an ‘island’: locally built geochemistry infrastructures need to integrate with equivalent initiatives internationally. AGN connects AuScope to the OneGeochemistry initiative, a new collaboration forming around similar globally-distributed research and government infrastructures. OneGeochemistry aims to develop/define the required international standards and best practices to establish a framework to enable global networking of FAIR geochemical databases. Through OneGeochemistry, AGN will be able to act both locally and globally, and simultaneously contribute to the challenges of the Australian DLT and the UN SDGS.