The Australian Government has released the Exposure Draft of the 2026 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap for public consultation.
The National Imaging Facility welcomes its release, and the opportunity for consultation responses from research leadership within and related to the advanced imaging community.
The roadmap will help guide national research infrastructure planning and investment over the next 5–10 years. It considers what capabilities Australia needs to support its aims for research excellence, innovation, translation and home-grown research capacity.
We note that the exposure draft considers many issues that are highly relevant to Australia’s biomedical imaging communities.
Advanced imaging increasingly depends on nationally coordinated infrastructure, specialist expertise, secure data environments, AI and – most importantly – impactful connections between preclinical research, human studies, clinical trials and translation. The roadmap draft explores these kinds of national opportunities and the cross-cutting capabilities that support them.
NIF is reviewing the exposure draft and will coordinate a submission. We encourage researchers, industry and institutions to either respond directly to the Australian Government consultation (preview the consultation survey), or share your feedback and priorities with us to help inform our response.