Powering Discovery, Sharing Success, and Building Community
Dear Name,
May was a month of strong engagement and national momentum at Pawsey, bringing together funding milestones, international collaboration and a steady stream of visitors connecting with our work.
Collaboration and connection were key themes throughout May. We welcomed continued investment from the Australian Government’s Department of Education through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), supporting Pawsey’s role in enabling Australian research and innovation.
At the Collaborate Innovate 2026 conference in Perth, we joined national partners to highlight the impact of NCRIS-enabled research infrastructure, while also opening our doors to conference attendees and other visitors keen to see Setonix in action.
The month also highlighted our expanding influence across the global stage. Our CEO Mark Stickells contributed to discussions at the 91st HPC User Forum in the United States, outlining the strategic choices facing Australia in an era of rapidly increasing AI and compute demand.
Pawsey hosted a wide range of guests, from SKAO Director-General Philip Diamond during his final visit to Australia before concluding his term to international delegations, researchers, students and community groups. Closer to home, we welcomed Australian Chief Scientist Professor Tony Haymet, showcasing the capabilities of Setonix, including its sustainable design and its importance as sovereign supercomputing infrastructure supporting national research priorities.
Recognition also marked the month, with our Setonix‑Q pilot program nominated for an INCITE Award in Research and Development. Providing access to both classical and quantum computing, Setonix‑Q highlights how we are continuing to push the boundaries of capability, supporting researchers to tackle increasingly complex challenges across science, industry and society.
Exciting changes are ahead! NCI and Pawsey are joining forces to bring you a new joint newsletter, your go-to source for the latest research highlights, training opportunities, events, and updates from Australia’s national supercomputing facilities.
Over the coming months, we will gradually transition from the current NCI newsletter to this new combined publication, bringing together the best stories and opportunities from both centres in one streamlined newsletter.
To continue receiving the latest news in high-performance computing, data, and digital research infrastructure, we encourage you to subscribe to the new joint newsletter here.
Pawsey welcomes continued Australian Government investment through NCRIS
Pawsey has welcomed continued investment from the Australian Government’s Department of Education through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), supporting Pawsey’s role in enabling Australian research and innovation.
We were among a group of national facilities to receive support under the National Research Infrastructure (NRI) strategy. The funding includes allocations through the NCRIS 2025 Step Change Funding Round and the NCRIS 2026 Capability Gap Funding Round.
The outcome reflects the important role national digital research infrastructure continues to play in supporting Australia’s scientific capability. The funding will contribute to our ongoing operations and its support of researchers across a broad range of scientific and technology domains, including health, climate and materials sciences, for the coming year.
We are thrilled to have been nominated for the INCITE Awards in the Research and Development category for our Setonix-Q pilot program.
Setonix Q is a world-first platform giving Australian researchers free, peer-reviewed, integrated access to supercomputing and real quantum hardware through a single portal. Built on years of quantum-HPC R&D, it combines Australia's Setonix supercomputer, NVIDIA GraceHopper simulators, and five quantum devices via Amazon Braket, democratising quantum computing across Australian science.
Last week we hosted Australia's Chief ScientistTony Haymet at Pawsey, showing him the facilities and what makes Setonix run, keep cooling eco-friendly, and the role a sovereign supercomputer like Setonix for Australia scientific breakthroughs.
The AeRO Early Career eResearch Excellence Prize recognises outstanding early-career professionals who make exceptional contributions to the eResearch and Digital Research Infrastructure sector across Australia and New Zealand.
Applications are assessed across six criteria. Nominations are open now, closing 19 June 2026.
Eligibility: Early-career professionals affiliated with an AeRO member organisation, based in Australia or New Zealand, within 10 years of entering the eResearch workforce OR within 10 years of their highest relevant qualification
Managing software dependencies is a common challenge when running bioinformatics workflows. Tools often require specific versions of libraries or conflicting environments, and analyses may need to run across different computational environments.
Containers help address these challenges by packaging software and its dependencies into portable environments that can run consistently across computing platforms. Nextflow integrates container technologies directly into workflow execution, making it easier to run analyses without manually installing or managing complex software stacks.
In this webinar organised by Australian BioCommons – another NCRIS facility – Pawsey's Dr Sarah Beecroft will explore how containers are used in practice within Nextflow workflows.
The National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) and Pawsey invite Sydney-region researchers, software engineers, data specialists, and HPC users to join us for our in-person roadshow at the UNSW Sydney CBD Campus.
Part of a 4-day roadshow, the first two days are open to all Sydney-region users, with an introduction to national HPC services, computing services and user support.
Hear about Setonix-Q, Pawsey's quantum computing pilot, NCI's platforms and services, and how to use Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)'s Nectar Cloud for your research.
📅 Date: 23-24 June 2026
📍Location: UNSW CBD Campus (level 5/210 George St), Sydney
USyd-Pawsey Workshop: Introduction to Setonix (in-person)
Researchers at the University of Sydney can access compute resources at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre through the Sydney Research Cloud (SRC) project. To help you get up to speed, SRC and Sydney Informatics Hub are collaborating with the Pawsey training team to offer an in-person hands-on workshop.
This workshop is ideal for:
New Pawsey users who are just getting started
Researchers who need a refresher on how to use Setonix effectively
Prospective users who may benefit from gaining access to Pawsey services
📅 Date: 25 June 2026 📍 Location: The Quadrangle, The University of Sydney
Celebrate National Science Week with a unique opportunity to explore the world of supercomputing, scientific research, and cutting-edge technology at Pawsey.
Whether you are part of a school group or a member of the public, discover how advanced computing is helping researchers tackle some of the world's biggest challenges.
The morning session is for school groups, and the afternoon session is open to the public.
📅 Date: 20 August 2026 📍 Location: Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, Kensington
NCI is excited to share its 2025 Annual Report, capturing a year of record demand, breakthrough science, and growing national impact powered by Australia’s sovereign supercomputing capability.
Behind every climate forecast, every medical breakthrough, every map of the universe, there's infrastructure making it possible. In 2025, NCI supported over 8,300 researchers across 7,486 projects, driving advances in AI weather forecasting, climate science, genomics, and more. Demand for compute reached unprecedented levels, reinforcing the critical role of national HPC in delivering real-world impact.
With expanded GPU capacity, upgraded infrastructure, and new national investments secured, NCI is building the foundations for the next era of discovery.
Read the full report to see how NCI is powering discovery at scale.
2026 ADAPTER Allocation Scheme
The ADAPTER 2026 allocation scheme is now open, providing merit-based access to NCI’s Gadi high-performance computing resources (200 KSU/quarter).
ADAPTER supports single investigator projects, including Early Career Researchers, as well as student-supervisor teams and researchers building capability toward larger national schemes such as NCMAS. It also provides access for researchers from institutions not currently part of NCI stakeholder allocation programs.
If you have questions about the scheme or the application process, please contact NCI User Services at help@nci.org.au
Using Retinal Imaging and Genetics to Reveal Early Markers of Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the fastest-growing neurological disorders worldwide, but by the time symptoms appear, significant brain changes have already occurred.
Finding early markers; years or decades before diagnosis; could transform how the disease is detected, treated, and potentially prevented.
A recent study led by researchers at the University of Queensland and The University of Western Australia has uncovered new evidence linking genetic risk for Parkinson’s disease with subtle structural changes in the retina.
The research suggests that the eye may reveal early signs of neurodegeneration long before symptoms develop.
Behind the scenes, Pawsey's Setonix enabled researchers to analyse large-scale Australian genetic and health data, helping make these discoveries possible.
