The University of Queensland will host Australia's first conference focusing on the role of research in information technology.

Called eResearch Australasia 2007, the inaugral conference focuses on raising awareness of research activities in the Asia Pacific region.

It also offers the eResearch community an opportunity to share information, discuss issues and network with peers for the first time.

The university's director of IT, Nick Tate, said the conference represented a unique forum for this sector to benefit from international expertise.

"The relationship between information technology and research is established and robust, but there are always opportunities to build upon it," Tate said.

"This conference will bring international eResearch experts together at the university and allow an active part of the community to benefit from their knowledge and ideas first hand, for the first time.

"It is an opportunity for delegates to meet their peers, develop their personal knowledge, exchange observations and experiences, and to gain an understanding of future eResearch directions and developments."

eResearch Australasia 2007 will feature speakers, posters, and demonstrations from the Australian and international eResearch community.

In addition to four conference streams over two days, the conference is followed by workshops from June 29, 2007.

Keynote speakers include Professor David De Roure, head of grid and pervasive computing in the school of electronics and computer science at the University of Southampton, and is the principal investigator of the Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute

The focus of his current research is on the application of advanced knowledge technologies to pervasive computing and the grid.

His presentation at this conference is entitled, "eScience is about Scientists too" which will promote a people-centric perspective on eScience infrastructure.

The conference will be held from June 26 - 28, 2007. Other speakers include Professor Philip Bourne, from the University of California, San Diego.

His professional interests focus on bioinformatics and structural bioinformatics.

He will be followed by Dr Paul Arthur, research Fellow with the Australia Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology.

Dr Arthur's research focuses on the innovative use of networked digital media and new media formats in the humanities, with a special interest in digital history and biography.

This presentation is an overview of the ways that humanities research is embracing new digital resources and formats and suggests that the e-Research revolution that is well advanced in the sciences is at an early stage in the humanities.

Rudolf Dimper, head of computing services for the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) will present a paper on "High performance computing for synchrotron radiation research" which looks at how the ESRF is a typical example in the scientific landscape where science and computing are intimately coupled and interdependent.

Dimper will discuss the need for international collaborations to address challenges like remote experiment control, remote data analysis, data curation, and the creation of a Virtual Organisation to federate the computing needs of the Synchrotron Radiation community.

Further conference information (program and speakers) is available on the Web site: Web www.eresearch.edu.au