Natasha Simons

Natasha Simons is Associate Director, Data & Services, for the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). She collaborates nationally and internationally to solve key challenges that improve research data infrastructure, policies, skills and practices. Based at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Natasha leads a geographically dispersed team who are passionate about enabling FAIR data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and driving a corresponding change in scholarly communication culture. She is responsible for delivery of ARDC’s multimillion-dollar National Data Assets Initiative that will establish strategic partnerships to develop a portfolio of national-scale data assets supporting leading-edge research. Natasha is an elected member of the FORCE11 Board of Directors, serves on the NISO Plus Advisory Committee, is co-chair of the Research Data Alliance Data Policy Standardisation Interest Group, co-chair of the DataCite Community Engagement Steering Group and Deputy Chair of the Australian ORCID Advisory Group. She has co-authored a book and numerous journal articles on research data challenges and solutions and is a regular presenter at research conferences and events.