For the detailed requirements, and project and organisation description, please refer to the Final RFQ – Review and validation of proposed data architecture strategy and design for the NPHSS under the Requirements Document section.

The Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) aims to adopt a modern public health surveillance and data analytics system to act as a frontline defence against diseases, including developing a business case for an interoperable National Public Health Surveillance System (NPHSS). The proposed unified data analytics platform will leverage advanced data and analytics to provide near real-time disease surveillance, enabling rapid health risk detection and scenario modelling. By integrating flexible technologies, the NPHSS will support robust pandemic preparedness and national coordination, ultimately improving health outcomes and decision-making across the country.

The CDC seeks specialised services which involve the review, advice, verification and validation (V&V) of a proposed architectural design for the unified data analytics platform and the design of ontology and knowledge graph components. This will be the core of the NPHSS. This is intended to support CDC's data exchange and analytics capabilities across a unified health surveillance and emergency response pipeline.

The purpose of this service is to obtain expert guidance and support in reviewing and advising on the proposed data architecture strategy (i.e. use of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning against alternative approaches) and validating and verifying the design artefacts for this Knowledge Representation and Reasoning components of the proposed National Public Health Surveillance System (NPHSS).

The services aim to validate and verify semantic data web approaches and components to achieve a scalable and effective target state architecture. The outputs of the engagement will confirm alignment with security standards, data exchange frameworks, and industry best practices. This effort is crucial to building a system capable of managing and exchanging health data with the highest levels of data cohesion and loose coupling.

The service also needs to ensure the architectural design adheres to the CDC’s strategic objectives (i.e. public health surveillance, data governance, scalability, security, compliance, and interoperability) and aligns with the Government’s policy for the Responsible Use of AI in Government (September 2024), the Standard for AI transparency statements and other relevant standards and policies including the Department of Health and Aged Care digital and ICT strategy Digital Transformation Agency’s (DTA’s) Cloud Strategy, ISM, and Whole-of-Government architecture principles.