Social & Cultural Informatics Platform (SCIP)

We are a digital research unit supporting digital methods and data analysis for researchers in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Science.

Our Services

Since 2015 SCIP has been the first University of Melbourne platform supporting University staff and graduate researchers in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) disciplines.

The SCIP team continues to support a range of digital research activities, from researcher consultations and workshops, partnering on local and national HASS research projects, through to professional learning in digital methods.

We provide direct support in:

Data analysis and Visualisations
Virtual and Augmented reality
Linguistics Data Management
Digital mapping and Spatial analysis
Website deployments
Grant planning and support
Research consultations and training on request
Collaborations with other platforms and services across the university

SCIP forms part of the Melbourne Collaborative Research Infrastructure Program (MCRIP). The SCIP Governance Group includes researchers, academics and professional staff from across the university.

Tweets by SCIPUniMelb

Platform staff

Name	Position	Email
Dr Trent Ryan	Data Scientist	trent.ryan@unimelb.edu.au
Ms Amanda Belton	Data Scientist	amanda.belton@unimelb.edu.au

Platform Governance

Prof. Rachel Fensham (Chair) (SCIP CI and Assistant Dean Digital Studio, Faculty of Arts)
A/Prof. Nick Thieberger (SCIP CI & Platform Manager, Faculty of Arts)
Prof. Sophie Arkoudis (ADR MGSE, Ass. Director Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education
Dr Kathryn Coleman (SCIP CI, MGSE)
Ms Cat Knights (Research Manager, Faculty of Arts)
Dr Bella Blaher (Manager, Research & Industry, Melbourne Education Research Institute (MERI), MGSE)
Ms Donna McRostie (Deputy Director, Research and Collection Stewardship, Student and Scholarly Services)
Dr Lyle Winton (Manager, Digital Stewardship, Research and Collection Stewardship, Student and Scholarly Services)
Dr Andrew Siebel (Melbourne Data Analytics Platform)
Dr Robert Lazarus (Faculty of Arts)
Dr Fabio Martioli (Faculty of Arts)

Book a consultation

Research consultations or inquiries can be made by appointment and will be delivered via Zoom.

Contact us to book a consultation with one of our research specialists, inquire about project/grant support or make a training request.

Digital research support

Our costing model is designed to support researchers seeking preliminary advice through to funded research projects seeking the skills of a data scientist to work on their project for a dedicated period of time.

SCIP's business model is to provide up to ten hours of support and advice per year to a particular researcher, but to partner in funding applications to bring revenue back to SCIP for more detailed projects. Because of the number of projects we are involved with, any additional capacity needed has to be funded externally.

SCIP Pricing Model

Activity Type / Description	Pricing
Expert Informatics support Single consultation session; Up to 1-day support for approved projects.	Free
Prioritised Un-Funded Projects SCIP supports unfunded projects that develop the digital HASS capability and align with the University's digital research priorities. Supported schemes will be considered by the SCIP Governance which includes faculty internal grants, near-miss funding, articulated seed grant schemes, phased grant schemes with seed/planning/development phases.	Free
Funded Projects SCIP provides dedicated informatics support on research projects that are funded or have available funds. Any budget reductions of successful grants can be adjusted to meet any budgeted SCIP costs.	Daily rate at A7 level
External Projects (contract rates) External projects are those where SCIP is contracted by an organisation external to the University, such as national HASS infrastructure projects. (Collaborative projects with internal CIs and external partners are ordinarily not considered external projects.)	Specific to project scope.