AURIN RESPONSE TO COVID-19

A MESSAGE FROM THE AURIN DIRECTOR

Dear AURIN Community,

As we all adjust to living and working under the new regime due to COVID-19, I want to assure you that AURIN is fully committed to the on-going support of our research and data community.

This pandemic is causing enormous upheaval in our towns, cities and communities, both now and into the future. AURIN’s current mission is to focus on supporting research that specifically addresses the extreme socio-economic challenges presented by COVID-19 within Australia’s cities and regional towns – including accessibility to essential services. The AURIN platform is enabling researchers to identify and target the most vulnerable regions and communities, in greatest need of financial, housing and child-care support. AURIN’s data and tools are enabling academics, government, industry and NGOs/NFPs to understand the impact of the lockdown on sector-based employment, community well-being and the economy, and the significant factors that enhance a community’s resilience.

THE AURIN TEAM

Our Technical, Data and Office teams have transitioned to working from home. To date this has had no impact on our services, which will continue to run as usual.

THE AURIN HELPDESK

The AURIN Helpdesk will continue to be your first point of contact during this time. The AURIN Support Team is available during business hours (Monday-Friday 8am – 4pm AEST) and best point of contact for getting in touch with the AURIN Team. If you are experiencing issues, need assistance with any of our Workbench tools or finding and accessing data, please contact AURIN Support.

Email:  support@aurin.org.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 3212

The best way to keep up to date with current AURIN events, data releases, online training updates and new research outcomes is by signing up to our mailing list or follow us on Twitter  or LinkedIn

THE AURIN WORKBENCH – NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE ON YOUR DESKTOP

As the AURIN Workbench is designed to provide access to a distributed network of data sources and analytical tools, our infrastructure, workplace, training and culture is already well positioned to face the challenges of working remotely. All services will continue to be maintained and supported, and development of new features and improvements to the AURIN Portal will continue as usual. As an end user, assuming you have access to an internet connection and browser, you can continue to access the AURIN Workbench and Data as normal.

AURIN’S TRUSTED DATA  REPOSITORY

AURIN provides access to the largest repository of urban and regional data for Australia’s research community.  AURIN’s data covers a range of topics including: population and demographics, transport and infrastructure, health and well-being, housing and property, energy and utilities, education, economy and the built environment. All free, clean, spatialised, harmonised and research-ready.

SUPPORTING COVID-19 RESEARCH

We are very pleased to see such a rapid response from the research community to investigate and address the varied impacts of this pandemic on Australia.  Our previous Director and Academic Fellow Professor Michele Acuto wrote this interesting article on the impact of the design of the built environment in our towns and cities on public health. Ben Philips from the Australian National University’s (ANU) Centre for Social Research and Methods explored the vulnerabilities of coastal and regional populations to risk of infection.  Data from our data custodians Corelogic is featured in this article looking at the impacts on the housing sector.

WE CAN FIND THE DATA YOU NEED

We look forward to supporting further research into this current challenge and encourage you to continue to access our 5500+ urban and regional datasets.  If you cannot find the data you need then please request it via our Data Request Form and we will do our best to find it and make it accessible for the whole AURIN Community.

Take care in these uncertain times and rest assured that we are here supporting our research community and data custodians.  If you have any suggestions of how we can assist you during this time or how to improve our services, then please contact us: support@aurin.org.au

Stuart Barr

AURIN Director