Institutional research computing infrastructure plays a vital role in Australia’s research ecosystem, complementing and extending national-level facilities. This paper presents an analysis of research computing capabilities across Australian universities and research organisations, examining how institutional infrastructure supports research excellence through localised compute resources, specialised hardware, and cluster solutions. Our study reveals that institutional computing resources of nearly 112,258 CPU cores and 2,241 GPUs serve as essential bridges between desktop computing and national facilities for over 6,000 researchers, enabling research workflows that span from development to large-scale computations. We estimate the total replacement value of this infrastructure to be approximately $144M AUD. Based on detailed infrastructure data provided by research computing facilities across multiple institutions, we identify key patterns in infrastructure deployment, utilisation metrics, and strategic alignment with research priorities. Our findings demonstrate that institutional computing resources not only provide critical support for data-intensive research but also facilitate training and higher-degree research student projects, enable prototyping and development, and ensure data sovereignty compliance when necessary. The analysis shows how these facilities leverage national infrastructure investments while addressing institution-specific needs that cannot be met by national facilities alone. We present evidence that strategic investment in institutional research computing capabilities yields significant returns through increased research productivity, enhanced graduate training, and improved research outcomes. This study provides valuable insights for research organisations planning their computing infrastructure strategies and highlights the importance of maintaining robust institutional computing capabilities alongside national facilities.

There is little doubt that we have entered an era where data underpins modern science and research in general. In support of this, numerous infrastructures have been designed and built, ranging from proprietary on-prem systems through to distributed commercial clouds. Such implementations provide a range of functions during the research lifecycle from provisioning and cataloguing data assets through to storing and presenting data to computing platforms. In this paper we analyse the underlying principles of such systems and develop a high-level Research Data Reference Architecture (RDRA). Specifically, we identify eight key features of a RDRA that can guide the design, construction, and procurement of implementations without mandating any domain, approach, technical solution, or product choice. As a result, it allows implementers to make local and commercial decisions while still meeting the core requirements of a research data management platform. The intended audience is teams charged with implementing infrastructure in research organizations.

The incorporation or lack thereof, of sound research data management practices can spell the difference between a successful and unsuccessful research project. This is typically reflected by the quality of the final project outputs. Establishment and sustainability of good institutional research data management practices require an institutional framework that includes policies, infrastructure and support services. UNSW Australia is developing a research data management infrastructure to support institutional research, including provision of tools for effectively managing and publishing research data. This endeavour has been an institution-wide collaboration involving a number of key stakeholders including UNSW Library, UNSW IT and the Division of Research. In this paper, we present UNSW Library's key contributions to development of this infrastructure that includes a curation-focussed information repository based on Fedora Commons software. In particular, we highlight the important relationships between the key stakeholders that the infrastructure embodies, and discuss the foundation for developing a sustainable information ecosystem for managing and disseminating UNSW research data.