• Charles Sturt University and the Australasian Space Innovation Institute are partnering to develop foundational national digital infrastructure that connects agricultural data, research models and AI
• The partnership will combine Charles Sturt's Australian Agricultural Data Exchange with ASII's National Digital Twin for Agriculture Program to enable new research capabilities, digital services and industry applications
• The infrastructure will help researchers, industry and government make greater use of existing data and research, test scenarios and improve decision-making in response to productivity, climate and biosecurity challenges

A new partnership will connect Charles Sturt University’s bank of agriculture data and the Australasian Space Innovation Institute will establish the foundations of national digital infrastructure to support the future of Australian agriculture.

The collaboration brings together Charles Sturt's Australian Agricultural Data Exchange (AADX) and ASII's National Digital Twin for Agriculture Program to develop a shared digital foundation that enables agricultural data, research models, satellite observations and AI to be more effectively connected, accessed and reused.

Rather than creating a single digital twin of Australian agriculture, the program is developing the underlying infrastructure from which multiple digital twins, research tools and decision-support services can be built.

This infrastructure will provide the building blocks for researchers, agricultural technology companies, Research and Development Corporations (RDCs), industry and government to develop new applications without needing to recreate the underlying data and modelling capabilities.

AADX will play an important role in providing access to agricultural datasets and data services, including information relating to soils, water, weather and climate.

Combined with ASII's expertise in satellite technologies, geospatial analytics, AI and modelling, this will enable new ways to examine agricultural systems and evaluate different management decisions.

The infrastructure is intended to support a range of practical applications, including placing agricultural trial results in the context of different environments, undertaking virtual experiments before investing in physical trials, and testing how research models perform across different locations, seasons and future climate conditions.

Approximately $3 billion is invested annually in Australian agriculture research and development but less than five per cent of potentially useful data is analysed to generate new information. 

Charles Sturt Vice-Chancellor, Professor Renée Leon, said the partnership would correct that. 

"Every dollar invested in Australian agricultural research and development returns $8 in the next decade," Professor Leon said. 

"This partnership will build the digital infrastructure that unlocks that return on investment and delivers tangible results for Australian producers. 

"Our farmers and agribusinesses already have most of the pieces. This partnership will connect that data so that the investment keeps paying back, for landholders and for the nation as a whole." 

ASII Chief Executive Officer, Professor Andy Koronios, said the initiative represented an important step towards building shared national digital capability.

"We are not setting out to build a single digital twin of Australian agriculture. Our ambition is to establish the digital infrastructure that allows researchers, industry and government to connect and reuse data, models and analytical tools to address real-world challenges," he said.

"By bringing together satellite observations, agricultural data, research models and artificial intelligence, we can create new opportunities to explore 'what if' scenarios, test ideas and better understand the potential consequences of decisions before they are made.

"Our role is to build the foundations that others can innovate upon, not compete with the AgTech or Agribusiness industry. We want to enable better products, services and research outcomes, with benefits flowing through to Australian farmers via the tools, advisors and services they already use, rather than requiring them to invest in another technology platform.

"While agriculture provides our initial focus, the underlying infrastructure will also have broader applications across climate, environmental monitoring and natural resource management."

Charles Sturt and the Australasian Space Innovation Institute (ASII) will build the foundations of the infrastructure and are now identifying high impact use cases for agriculture and other industries.

The first is a $465,000 project involving Meat & Livestock Australia, Charles Sturt and ASII. 

The project will test and validate platform and help identify future investment opportunities through two cases studies. 

The first will focus on cattle and pasture management at Charles Sturt’s Wagga Wagga campus, combining virtual fencing and automated livestock weight data, weather information and satellite imagery to help identify the best paddocks for cattle movement and pasture management. 

The second will focus on managing mimosa weed in the Northern Territory, using satellite imagery and historical farm data to predict where the invasive weed is most likely to spread and where control measures can be targeted. 

The project will be delivered by researchers from Charles Sturt’s Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Futures Centre and specialists from ASII. 

Other use cases will investigate water avaliability, virtual fencing, and farm scale natural capital assessments.

Findings from these early projects will help validate the infrastructure, demonstrate its practical value and inform its further development to support more productive, resilient and sustainable management of Australia’s agricultural and natural resources.