This NCEPH ECR Travel Grant Report is written by Ben Harrap, Research Fellow at Yardhura Walani. Ben currently works on the data management side of the Mayi Kuwayu National Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing. 

Attending the 2025 Australian Statistical Conference (ASC) was fantastic, and I’m grateful for the funding provided by the ECR Travel Grant that supported me to attend.

I got to present my work on survey weighting during the Official Statistics sessions, facilitated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This was the perfect session to present in, as I was hoping to get some insights from survey methodologists in the room on the work and potential future directions. Gladly for me, the feedback was positive and gave me some ideas for avenues to explore next year.

The lineup of ASC2025 keynotes was excellent, too, ranging from the technical to the human. Martin Hazelton’s keynote on fibre sampling and algebraic ring theory, for example, introduced me to some new and interesting concepts, whereas Jo Potts’ keynote on her experiences as a consulting statistician and journey there was very relatable.

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Ben Harrap (right) and statistician Shih Ching Fu (Curtin University) on Perth's Cottesloe beach. Image: supplied

One of the most memorable sessions for me was Rob Hyndman’s talk on forecasting—he made a comment that in forecasting, sometimes you want your forecast to end up being wrong, because the goal is for the forecast to affect policy such that the trajectory you’ve predicted is avoided. It’s not often you hear about researchers hoping that they’re wrong!

One of my favourite aspects of the conference was chatting with other statisticians. Attending in-person was a great way to meet many people I’d only met online, as well as people I’d never met before, but I felt like I ran out of time to chat with everyone!

Of particular note were statisticians from Canada’s and the UK’s professional statistics bodies, with whom I’m hoping to be in closer touch in the coming years to build a more collaborative relationship between the Statistical Society of Australia and their countries’ respective statistical societies.

All the in-person connections I made will make the follow-ups I will be doing in the new year that much easier. I’ll be following up with a few different groups from the ABS, related to a couple of projects I’m working on around data linkage and survey methods, and seeing if I can arrange a visit to the soon-to-be Adelaide University to present some of my work on survey design.