CSIRO research tool enables broad searches

A research tool from CSIRO has the ability to make it easier to get information on research activities in Australia's research institutions, universities and government departments.

Known as Research Finder, the application is powered by CSIRO's Panoptic search engine and was developed by CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences Division for the Department of Education, Science and Training.

"Until now, to find this kind of information on the web, you needed to know which organisation was doing the research, or else take your chances with a very general Internet search engine," said CSIRO's Dr David Hawking.

He explained that Research Finder searches all of Australia's research organisations in one go, and allows categorisation by field, type of organisation and location.

Over 200 research organisations are represented, including CSIRO, Cooperative Research Centres, universities, institutes of medical research, R&D corporations, technology transfer organisations and Commonwealth Government departments and agencies.

Hawking said that the initial purpose of the search engine was to enable Australian researchers and industries to find out what Australian research is going on in their field of interest.

But he noted that the search engine was a good resource for students and educators and is also a convenient way to locate contact details for researchers.