QCIF

What QCIF does

QCIF (Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation Ltd), founded in 2010 and headquartered in Brisbane, is a not-for-profit public company providing digital research infrastructure, bioinformatics, biostatistics, high-performance computing, and data management services to Australian research, government, and healthcare organisations. It operates a portfolio of proprietary platforms including KeyPoint (a Trusted Research Environment for sensitive data), ReDBox (FAIR-compliant research data management), the Bioinformatics Accelerator (HPC for genomics and life sciences), Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, and national platforms EcoCommons (ecological modelling) and WildObs (wildlife camera trap processing). Underlying technology is built on Python, R, Nextflow, Galaxy, Azure cloud, and federated learning architectures, with computer vision and ML models developed in-house for specialised Australian-domain use cases.

The organisation serves three primary customer segments — academia, government, and industry — with member-based service delivery to Queensland universities (UQ, QUT, Griffith, JCU, CQUniversity, UniSC) and direct consulting engagements with Queensland state departments (Health, DAFF, DETSI) and healthcare providers (Pathology Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Health Translation Queensland). QCIF monetises through three streams: customised consulting and professional services, subscription/recurring research infrastructure access (ReDBox, SeeVogh, Quadrant, QRIScloud, HPC services), and paid training/workshop programs (~40 workshops annually covering programming, statistics, AI/ML, bioinformatics). GTM is sales-led and community-led, anchored by embedded eResearch Analysts at member universities, NCRIS/ARDC co-investment programs, Hacky Hours community sessions, and a PhD internship pipeline.

QCIF is a partner in NCRIS-enabled national research infrastructure alongside ARDC, TERN, ALA, NCI, and CSIRO, and participates in frontier initiatives including federated learning (NINA, ACDN), quantum transport for Brisbane 2032, and the HeSANDA Queensland Node health data repository. Revenue is not publicly disclosed; pricing is quote-based and negotiated per engagement. Leadership includes CEO Sach Jayasinghe (since 2022), CTO Stephen Bird (30+ years in HPC/cloud), and newly appointed Head of Applied AI and Quantum Algorithms Dr. Moji Ghadimi (April 2025).

Name

QCIF

Legal name

Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation Ltd

Website

https://qcif.edu.au

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

QCIF is a not-for-profit Australian research infrastructure organisation providing bioinformatics, biostatistics, HPC, AI/ML, and secure data management services to Queensland universities, government agencies, and healthcare providers through proprietary platforms including KeyPoint, ReDBox, EcoCommons, and WildObs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Research Infrastructure Services

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)

akta.pro primary industry

Managed Quantum Services & Enterprise Support (HDAGAIAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Hybrid Quantum-Classical Orchestration & Workflow Management (HDAGAIAD), Analytical Development & QC Testing (Release/Stability/Potency) (HLAGAGAF)

Keywords

• Research data infrastructure
• Bioinformatics consulting
• High-performance computing
• Trusted research environment
• Biostatistics services

Headquarters

HQ city

Brisbane

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Consulting and Professional Services: QCIF provides customized data analytics solutions, biostatistics support, bioinformatics consulting, and software development services to life science and clinical researchers. Services are delivered through skilled personnel with expertise in software engineering, data management, and applied high-performance computing.
2. Research Infrastructure Services: Provision and utilisation of research tools including ReDBox, SeeVogh, Quadrant, QRIScloud, and High Performance Computing services to academic and government research institutions.
3. Training and Skills Development: Nearly 40 practical workshops delivered to QCIF members covering programming, statistics, AI/machine learning, data management, and bioinformatics. Specialized seminars and consulting delivered through Instats partnership.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

QCIF provides digital research infrastructure, cloud computing, bioinformatics, biostatistics, and applied AI consulting services to life science and clinical researchers, universities, and government agencies. Its core offerings include proprietary platforms such as KeyPoint (Trusted Research Environment), ReDBox (research data management), Bioinformatics Accelerator (HPC for genomics), EcoCommons (ecological modelling), and WildObs (wildlife monitoring), complemented by customised consulting, REDCap design services, and a large-scale training workshop program.

Product overview

QCIF provides a portfolio of digital research infrastructure products and services spanning data management, secure computing environments, bioinformatics, and specialised research platforms. The core offerings include ReDBox (research data management), KeyPoint (Trusted Research Environment for sensitive data), the Bioinformatics Accelerator (HPC for life sciences), and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) for pathway analysis. These products are complemented by extensive skills and training programs, applied AI capabilities, and specialised services in software engineering, data engineering, statistics, and bioinformatics consulting. QCIF operates as a not-for-profit public company providing customised data analytics solutions primarily to life science, clinical researchers, government agencies, and industry clients across Australia.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• KeyPoint: A Trusted Research Environment (TRE) providing secure remote analysis environment for sensitive research data.
• ReDBox
• Bioinformatics Accelerator
• QCIF Dataverse

Products and services

• KeyPoint Trusted Research Environment

Quantifiable outcome

• Supports thousands of active users running millions of ecological models through EcoCommons platform
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability13 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

33 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Queensland University of Technology (QUT)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2024QUT provides subcontractor support for DNA to Decisions project, including Roberto Barrero Gumiel (QUT lead) and Marie-Emilie Gauthier (QUT bioinformatician).
• Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerQCIF collaborates with ARDC through Planet Research Data Commons for EcoCommons platform development and WildObs co-investment. ARDC is enabled by NCRIS and provides funding and strategic direction for national research data infrastructure.
• Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTERN is a co-investment partner in WildObs platform development, working to improve data integration and enable open, collaborative science for biodiversity monitoring.
• Atlas of Living Australia (ALA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerALA works with QCIF on the WildObs project and EcoCommons platform, improving data integration and enabling open, collaborative science across national research infrastructure.
• Australian National University (ANU)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with NCI at ANU to deliver 27 workshops in HPC, AI, and computational research to Australian researchers, totaling 197 training hours with 1,035 attendees.
• National Computational Infrastructure (NCI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNCI is one of Australia's leading supercomputing centres. QCIF delivers training on NCI systems, expanding access to HPC resources across the research sector.
• Queensland Digital Health Centre (QDHeC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerQDHeC partners with QCIF on the NINA project for federated learning infrastructure supporting chronic disease research across Queensland.
• University of QueenslandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUQ leads the NINA project with QCIF providing technical expertise. UQ's Queensland Digital Health Centre coordinates deployment with stakeholders.
• InstatsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerPartnership with Instats delivers specialized seminars and consulting for researchers and practitioners in government, industry, and non-member universities, extending QCIF expertise beyond member network.
• Queensland Herbarium and Biodiversity Science (QHBS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerQHBS partnered with QCIF through the DETSI Private Sector Pathways program to deliver AI workflow for wildlife camera-trap image identification.
• Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDETSI funds the Private Sector Pathways program with QCIF delivering production-ready AI solutions for wildlife monitoring supporting environmental decision-making.
• QCIF Member UniversitiescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerQCIF serves Queensland universities including UQ, QUT, Griffith, JCU, CQUniversity, UniSC, and others through member agreements and eResearch Analyst placements.
• Health Translation QueenslandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHealth Translation Queensland co-leads the HeSANDA Queensland Node with QCIF and CSIRO, operating the metadata repository for health research data.
• CSIROcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCSIRO co-leads the HeSANDA Queensland Node and collaborates with QCIF on digital health infrastructure and data management solutions.
• Queensland GovernmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerQueensland Government partners on Quantum Transport and Mobility Solutions for Brisbane 2032, providing strategic guidance for transport and mobility objectives.
• University of New South Wales (UNSW)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUNSW collaborates on quantum transport and mobility solutions project, contributing expertise in quantum computing and transport modelling.
• Queensland University of Technology (QUT)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerQUT partners on quantum transport project for Brisbane 2032, aligning technical approaches with Queensland's strategic transport objectives.
• UNSW (Australian Conservation of Digital Effort - ACDN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUNSW leads the ACDN network with QCIF providing technical contributions on federated learning software and architecture.
• University of Sydney (AIS/NIF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity of Sydney participates in Frontier Federated Machine Learning project as NINA node partner.
• ARDCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerARDC enables the Frontier Federated Machine Learning project through NCRIS funding, supporting national FL infrastructure development.
• Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDAFF engaged QCIF to develop automated DNA analysis workflows for biosecurity sample processing, using Nextflow and Python deployed on ARDC Nectar platform.
• National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNCRIS enables ARDC and QCIF research infrastructure through Australian Government funding, supporting national research data commons.
• University of Melbourne (CEBRA)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCEBRA collaborates on EcoCommons platform development and ecological modelling workflows.
• Macquarie UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMacquarie University participates in EcoCommons community of practice and collaborative working groups.
• Bush Heritage AustraliaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBush Heritage collaborates on EcoCommons platform and WildObs projects for conservation and biodiversity monitoring.
• Queensland MuseumminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerQueensland Museum collaborates on WildObs project for wildlife data integration and biodiversity research.
• Queensland HealthcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerQueensland Health collaborates with QCIF on the Life Retrieval Project for statewide review of blood product administration in liver disease patients.
• Pathology QueenslandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPathology Queensland leads the Life Retrieval Project with QCIF biostatistics support for blood product administration research.
• Southern Cross UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSouthern Cross University conducts HEART clinical trial on climate-related trauma with QCIF REDCap support.
• TAFE QueenslandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTAFE Queensland partners on Quantum Workforce Readiness project, connecting vocational students with universities and research infrastructure through structured placements.
• Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) QueenslandminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerANFF Queensland collaborates on Quantum Workforce Readiness project for technical skills development.
• Wildlife Observatory of Australia (WildObs)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWildObs is a national initiative for camera trap data processing, co-investment partnership with ARDC and TERN, with QCIF leading platform development.
• Monash UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMonash University collaborates with Turning Point on National Ambulance Surveillance System data pipeline development.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Microsoft Azure for Research: Global hyperscaler providing HPC, AI, and cloud research services including Azure Trusted Research Environments. Microsoft Azure competes with QCIF's KeyPoint and Bioinformatics Accelerator at the platform layer and is an underlying infrastructure provider for QCIF's own workloads.
• ELIXIR: European intergovernmental organisation for bioinformatics infrastructure, coordinating data resources, tools, and training. ELIXIR is comparable to QCIF's bioinformatics and federated data services in scope and mission, though operating at a much larger geographic scale.
• AARNet: Australia's Academic and Research Network providing high-speed connectivity and research cloud services. AARNet offers adjacent data and cloud infrastructure that competes and complements QCIF's research cloud and data management offerings for the same university sector.
• Health Data Research UK (HDR UK): UK's national institute for health data science, operating Trusted Research Environments and federated analytics across institutions. HDR UK is comparable to QCIF's KeyPoint and NINA work as a national-scale operator of secure health data infrastructure.

Direct peers

• Pawsey Supercomputing Centre: NCRIS-funded supercomputing centre providing HPC, cloud, and data services to Australian researchers. Pawsey competes with QCIF for national compute workloads and shares the same university/government buyer segments and NCRIS funding pool.
• Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN): NCRIS-funded national ecosystem monitoring infrastructure. TERN is a co-investment partner on QCIF's WildObs platform and overlaps in delivering ecological data infrastructure to Australian environmental researchers and policymakers.
• Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC): Australia's peak NCRIS-enabled research data infrastructure body. ARDC directly co-funds and partners with QCIF on EcoCommons, WildObs, HeSANDA, NINA, and Nectar, and overlaps heavily in providing national data commons, FAIR data tooling, and training to the same university and government customers.
• Bioplatforms Australia: NCRIS-enabled provider of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics infrastructure to Australian life science researchers. Bioplatforms Australia directly overlaps with QCIF's bioinformatics and life-science data analytics services and shared customer base.
• National Computational Infrastructure (NCI): Australia's leading HPC centre at ANU, delivering supercomputing, data, and training to researchers. NCI partners with QCIF on training delivery and competes/collaborates for national HPC, cloud, and AI workloads across the same Australian research and government customer base.
• Atlas of Living Australia (ALA): NCRIS-funded national biodiversity data platform hosted by CSIRO. ALA is a direct collaborator on QCIF's WildObs and EcoCommons initiatives and shares the same ecological modelling and biodiversity monitoring customer base across Australia.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

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Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about QCIF