Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network

What Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network does

AURIN (Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network) is a national digital research infrastructure facility funded by the Australian Government under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) and hosted by the University of Melbourne. Established in 2010, AURIN provides programmatic and browser-based access to over 5,000 research-ready spatial datasets spanning health, transport, housing, economic, land use, demographic, and environmental data, sourced from more than 100 government, industry, and research organisations. The platform centres on the AURIN Data Provider (ADP), which delivers data via Web Feature Services to authenticated Australian researchers through the Australian Access Federation, and the AURIN Data Catalogue for dataset discovery. Named data products include DSpark mobility data, Geoscape built environment data, Ambient Maps noise mapping, and the National Health Services Directory, while AURIN Data Tales provides interactive visual storytelling of research outcomes.

The business model is entirely grant-funded with no commercial pricing for core access; authenticated researchers obtain services at no cost, and only restricted commercial datasets (e.g., Geoscape) require separate application and approval. Distribution follows a hub-and-spoke model with HQ at Parkville (Melbourne) and regional nodes including the WA Node at UWA/PATREC and the URBANiQ Node at UQ, supported by partnerships with PHRN, ARDC, Geoscape Australia, DSpark, Ambient Maps, Healthdirect Australia, ALA, BirdLife Australia, Federation University, and peak bodies such as the Geospatial Council of Australia and Planning Institute of Australia. AI/ML features are embedded in specific research projects (air quality integration, heat vulnerability deep learning, AUCRI urban climate consequence modelling) rather than as a foundational platform capability.

AURIN serves academic researchers, government planners and policymakers, industry analysts, and not-for-profit organisations across Australia, with documented use cases spanning bicycle infrastructure modelling (UNSW), disability and aged care service access analysis (La Trobe), housing affordability research (UNSW Housing Analytics Lab), BRT and property value analysis (QUT), and heat vulnerability mapping (QUT — UN World Data Forum 2024 ArcGIS StoryMaps category winner). The organisation has secured approximately $40.9 million in cumulative funding across NCRIS core, AUCRI, CoastRI, and AusEnHealth projects, supports a team of approximately 30 staff, and has served over 24,000 users since inception.

Name

Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network

Legal name

Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network

Website

https://aurin.org.au

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

AURIN is a federally funded Australian research infrastructure, hosted by the University of Melbourne, that provides academic researchers, government planners, and industry with programmatic access to over 5,000 spatial datasets, analytical tools, and regional nodes for evidence-based urban and regional research.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Melbourne

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Government Funding - NCRIS: AURIN is a national research infrastructure funded by the Australian Government under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). Recent funding secured totals $25 million over 5 years as part of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. Additional project-specific funding includes $11 million for AUCRI and $3 million contribution to CoastRI.
2. Medical Research Future Fund - AusEnHealth: Project-based funding from Medical Research Future Fund National Critical Research Infrastructure program, with $1.9 million awarded for the Australian Environmental Health Strategic Planning Digital Twin platform.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

AURIN provides a national digital research infrastructure that gives authenticated Australian researchers programmatic and browser-based access to more than 5,000 multidisciplinary, research-ready spatial datasets covering health, transport, housing, economic, land use, demographic and environmental data. It negotiates access to high-value commercial datasets (DSpark mobility, Geoscape built environment, Ambient Maps noise, Healthdirect NHSD) and supports spatial analytics through Web GIS, machine learning, deep learning and digital twin capabilities. A national Node Network hosted at partner universities extends the platform regionally for priority research areas.

Product overview

AURIN is a national research infrastructure providing a platform-plus-services architecture centred on the AURIN Data Provider (ADP) and Data Catalogue, which enable programmatic and browser-based access to thousands of multidisciplinary datasets. The ecosystem includes named data products (DSpark Mobility Data, Geoscape Data, Ambient Maps Noise Data, NHSD), analytical tools and visualisation products (AURIN Data Tales), and major research initiatives (AusUrb-HI, AusEnHealth, AUCRI, CoastRI). The AURIN Node Network extends the platform regionally through institutional partnerships including URBANiQ and the AURIN WA Node. The organisation operates a hub-and-spoke model with HQ at University of Melbourne supporting researchers, government, and industry.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 24,000 researchers served since 2010
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

AI capability7 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and secondary.

• Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 June 2026AURIN and ISC announced partnership to strengthen connection between sustainable infrastructure practice, academic research and real-world impact. Collaboration supports shared ambition to ensure insights from infrastructure sustainability practice contribute to evidence base for climate adaptation, net zero transition, transport, housing, resilience, liveability and social value.
• DSparkcoreTechnology or IntegrationAURIN secured unprecedented access to national level mobility data from DSpark for researchers, industry and decision-makers. Data includes Discreet Visit, Staypoint, Origin-Destination Matrix and Origin-Destination attributes. DSpark are leaders in processing large geospatial, temporal mobility data using highest data privacy standards.
• Geoscape AustraliacoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnership to provide access to Geoscape built environment data including 3D building footprints, transport noise overlay and buildings data. Geoscape data enables detailed urban analysis and planning research.
• Healthdirect AustraliacoreTechnology or IntegrationAURIN offers Healthdirect Australia's National Health Services Directory (NHSD) through the AURIN Data Provider, providing researchers geocoded health service data to map access, equity and resilience across Australia.
• Ambient MapscoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnership to provide Transport Noise Mapping Datasets developed using sophisticated environmental noise modeling software. Covers road, rail and aircraft noise for over 15 million buildings nationwide.
• Atlas of Living Australia (ALA)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on Built Environments Biodiversity Project, combining citizen science observational data and land use data to quantify value of urban wetlands using Latham's Snipe as a case study.
• Federation UniversitysecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerLed by Dr Birgita Hansen, collaboration on Valuing Urban Wetlands project combining citizen science and land use data for biodiversity assessment.
• BirdLife AustraliasecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership on Built Environments Biodiversity Project focusing on urban wetland conservation and biodiversity monitoring using Latham's Snipe as flagship species.
• Population Health Research Network (PHRN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on Australian Urban Health Indicators (AusUrb-HI) project developing suite of health indicator data assets through NCRIS facility collaboration.
• Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on AusUrb-HI project and broader research data infrastructure development as part of NCRIS network.
• University of Queensland - URBANiQcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLaunched URBANiQ Node focusing on data-informed responses to urban health, liveability and equity challenges. Led by Associate Professor Jonathan Olsen, brings together expertise in urban planning, health, transport, geography and social sciences.
• Planning and Transport Research Centre (PATREC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to establish AURIN WA Node at University of Western Australia supporting climate action and sustainable planning in Western Australia, with initial focus on PATREC's Climate Action in Transport and Land Use Planning program.
• Geospatial Council of AustraliasecondaryOthersAURIN is a member of the Geospatial Council of Australia as an organisational member.
• Australian Logistics CouncilsecondaryOthersAURIN is a member (Research Partner) of the Australian Logistics Council.
• Planning Institute of Australia (PIA)secondaryOthersAURIN is a Member Services Program Partner of Planning Institute of Australia.
• AusEnHealth ConsortiumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAURIN supports the Australian Environmental Health Strategic Planning Digital Twin led by FrontierSI and QUT, with participation from Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mining and Energy, Curtin University, Geoscience Australia, WA Department of Health, NGIS, Victorian EPA, and TERN.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research): University of Michigan-based international archive of social science research data, providing curated access to thousands of datasets for academic researchers. Comparable to AURIN as a long-standing, publicly funded social-science data infrastructure with hosted datasets, training programmes, and a hub-and-spoke member-institution model.
• UK Data Service: UK's national research data infrastructure providing curated access to social, economic, and urban datasets for accredited researchers. Closely comparable to AURIN in mandate (national e-research infrastructure for social/urban science), funding model (public grant-funded), and catalogue-plus-access-portal delivery, differing only by geography and disciplinary emphasis.
• Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC): Australian NCRIS-funded national research data infrastructure collaborating with AURIN on the AusUrb-HI project. Operates a parallel national mandate to enable access to research data across disciplines, making it the closest domestic counterpart and direct peer within the same Australian funding ecosystem.
• GESIS (Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences): German national research infrastructure for the social sciences, offering curated data, surveys, and analytical tools to accredited researchers. Directly comparable to AURIN as a publicly funded, mandate-driven e-research infrastructure serving social and urban research communities with hosted datasets and training.

Emerging players

• Placer.ai: US-based location analytics platform providing foot-traffic and mobility insights using anonymised mobile data. Comparable to AURIN in enabling urban, retail, and mobility research via aggregated mobility datasets, but commercial and US-focused rather than publicly funded and Australian.
• CARTO: Cloud-native location intelligence and spatial analytics platform serving enterprise and analytical users. Comparable to AURIN in providing spatial analytics infrastructure for urban, demographic, and mobility analysis, but commercial and globally focused rather than publicly funded and nationally scoped.

Broad incumbents

• ESRI: Global incumbent in GIS software whose ArcGIS platform is used by AURIN researchers and integrated into AURIN training programmes. Comparable as the dominant broad-scope geospatial analytics platform, but operates as a commercial vendor rather than a publicly funded infrastructure.
• Google Earth Engine: Google's planetary-scale geospatial analytics platform providing free access to petabytes of satellite imagery and analytical tools. Overlaps with AURIN's geospatial analytics capabilities for urban and environmental research but operates globally with commercial backing rather than as a national research infrastructure.

Others

• Geoscape Australia: Australian built-environment spatial data provider whose building footprints, transport noise overlay, and address data are accessible through AURIN. A data partner and ecosystem participant rather than a competitor, providing foundational urban data assets that AURIN distributes to researchers.
• DSpark: Australian mobility data provider whose national-level visit, staypoint, and origin-destination datasets are accessible through AURIN. A core data supplier to AURIN rather than a direct competitor, but materially relevant as the upstream source of one of AURIN's flagship datasets.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/aurin_org_au
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/aurin

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network