ARC Complex Open Systems Research Network

A proposal built on a history of networking activity

This web site and the associated Australian Research Council (ARC) Network proposal is an initiative of the Centre for Complex Systems at the Australian National University. The Centre began life in 1994 as the National Centre for Theoretical Physics, a pilot for a National Institute for Theoretical Physics. The Centre was started with ARC seed funding but, until the current ARC Research Network round, there has been no ARC program appropriate to fund it. Nevertheless it has continued, mainly with ANU funding, to enhance graduate education in Australia through its annual summer schools and has stimulated Australian research through eight extended research workshops.

In 2001 the name Centre for Complex Systems (CCS) was adopted to signify a broadening of the scope of the Centre to include the many non-traditional areas to which modern theoretical physicists are contributing. The 2002 Summer School, DynamicSummer: Topics in Nonlinear Dynamics Collective Phenomena and Complexity, convened by Dr Rowena Ball, was its first activity under this name, outcomes being: introducing students to aspects of complex systems theory, forging domestic and international links and collaborations, and publication of a book of Lecture Notes (the first in the new series World Scientific Lecture Notes in Complex Systems).

The extensive networking experience of the Centre makes it a natural springboard for an ARC Research Network in complex systems. This web site and the ARC Network proposal have been developed with the help of ARC SRI seed funding for the Energetically Open Systems Research Network Study, convened by Robert Dewar, Coordinator of the ANU CCS. A workshop was held, 16-17 February 2004 assisted by this seed funding.

The promotion of complex systems theory in Australia owes much to Terry Bossomaier, David Green and Russell Standish, who have run a series of conferences on complex systems; the first one being at ANU in 1992 and the most recent at Chuo University, Tokyo in 2002. Professor Bossomaier has also run a series of summer schools on complex systems at Bathurst. They have also been the driving force behind the creation of the journal Complexity International and a number of books, such as Complex Systems, eds. TRJ Bossomaier and DG Green (CUP, Cambridge, 2000).

Another important development has been the decision by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to declare Complex Systems Science an Emerging Science Area and to fund the formation of the CSIRO Centre for Complex Systems Science (CCCSS) headquartered in Canberra and led by John Finnigan of the Division of Atmospheric Research. This Centre has established a diverse network of researchers within CSIRO and beyond, providing a base on which COSNet can build.

In 2003 two more complex systems centres were formed in Australia, the ARC Centre of Excellence in the Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems (MASCOS) and the ARC Centre for Complex Systems (ACCS). These are focussed research centres, whose expertise COSNet will link to the wider community.

For more information on the COSNet ARC Research Network proposal, submitted on March 22, 2004, see our Vision page.