The Long-term Data Workflow from Creator to Re-user: How Can This Be Managed Best for Future Benefit for Research and Development of Predictive Tools

This co-located session (https://idw2025.org/co-located-events/#workflow), associated with International Data Week 2025 (https://idw2025.org/) brought together experts from the sciences, data infrastructure, and data curation to examine how long-term data workflows—from creation through to re-use—can be better managed to support future research and the development of predictive tools. As research increasingly relies on vast and complex datasets, this discussion explored the challenges and opportunities involved in collecting, storing, curating, and reusing data over time and across domains. Focusing on issues such as sustainability, trust, and interoperability, the session considered how emerging technologies, ethical frameworks, and collaborative infrastructure can help ensure long-term value from national and global data assets. Through cross-sector dialogue, participants reflected on what makes data truly reusable, who benefits from reuse, and how we can better integrate data management into the research lifecycle, particularly for repeatable, large-scale, or sensitive datasets. The goal is to foster a shared understanding of the end-to-end data pipeline and to identify ways to improve its efficiency, transparency, and impact for future scientific and policy outcomes. We organised discussion around three themes stimulated by presentations as follows: Data creator and user Craig Thornton (Queensland Government), Sarah Hegarty (Swinburn University), John Carter (Queensland Government), Janet Davies (Queensland University of Technology) Repositories and data storage Peter Marendy (Queensland CyberInfrastructure Foundation), Siddeswara Guru (Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network), Lagi Reupena (Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme), Graham Parton (NERC Environmental Data Service) Horizon scanning Shelley Stall (American Geophysical Union), Wim Hugo (Dutch national centre of expertise and repository for research data), Mark Gray (Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre), Francis P.Crawley (Committee on Data of the International Science Council) The presentations by each of the participants have been aggregated into a single document. Version 2 corrects a date error in one presentation.