Staff snapshot: Peter Sefton

Peter Sefton is the eResearch Manager within the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) and is based on the Penrith campus. Learn more about Peter and his role here at UWS.

When did you start working at UWS and what was your first role?
I started at UWS in late 2011, as eResearch Manager, the first to hold this position at UWS.

Describe your current role in 100 words or less:
My role is to establish and lead the eResearch team (meet them on the webpage(opens in a new window)); together our goal is to make sure that researchers in all disciplines have the IT and communications infrastructure and skills they need to conduct their research, and to keep up with the global trend towards networked research using large amounts of data. We provide support, organise training, collaborate on research projects and are involved in policy development for research and IT. It's not really about computers and storage, it's about maximising research impact and research integrity.

What's the best thing about your job?
The best part of being in eResearch is the opportunity to work with the full range of researchers from across the University, hear their stories, collaborate with them, help them out, and maybe suggest some new ways of working. And we get to play with cool technology at the same time, of course.

What do you love most about working at UWS?
I love going to seven hours of meetings a day, the travel portal (particularly ETANs), and driving between campuses on Sydney's wonderful motorways. Also, the Werrington North kangaroos are cute.

What are you going to be working on in the next 12 months?
Over the next 12 months we're going to be working with the new Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) Scott Holmes and his team to help researchers implement the new UWS eResearch plan, which will focus on maximising the impact of UWS research via active engagement with our local and global community. We'll be continuing to transition our team from a reactive support-based culture to a model where we help researchers transform their research practices. The eResearch team is helping to deliver an exciting new big-data project, which will cement UWS's place in the region and deepen our engagement with government and the community.

The big question, of course, is: what is eResearch? I deliberately didn't define that in this profile. Check out the eResearch webpage (opens in a new window) to find out.