PEAN engages multiple portfolios in collaborative analytical work that uses a wide range of data, not just environmental or agricultural data. We use our member's analytical capabilities relating to the physical environment to support policies and programs administered by other agencies. In 2018–19 there were 16 Australian Government agencies engaged in developing or implementing our projects, including in the Health, Home Affairs, Indigenous Affairs, Industry, Infrastructure and Trade portfolios. This has extended the reach of the Data Integration Partnership for Australia program to promote the awareness and uptake of data analysis, and to establish foundations for future cross-portfolio policy research.

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PEAN has a strong focus on spatial data and successfully championed the importance of spatial integration to the Data Integration Partnership for Australia program. During 2017–18 PEAN convened a series of workshops with spatial experts to develop a project to improve the government’s capability to integrate and analyse data based on location. This resulted in the location index or Loc-I project. Loc-I will enable agencies to use location information to integrate their data efficiently, consistently and securely, replacing the need to do this on a bespoke basis for individual projects. This will reduce the costs and increase the scope of future analytical work.

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PEAN is working with Indigenous leaders to generate analytical outputs that meet the needs of Indigenous stakeholders. Our projects support recommendations from the Northern Australia Ministerial Forum’s Indigenous Reference Group, which emphasised the need for improved access to government data, a strengthened role for Indigenous end-users in decision making, and improved access to information to support decision making about use of land, sea, water and cultural assets. We anticipate this work will contribute to community understanding of and support for future analytical projects.