OTTAWA, CANADA–(Marketwired – May 26, 2014) – CANARIE, a vital component of Canada’s digital infrastructure supporting research, education and innovation, today announced that it will fund the ongoing activities of Research Data Canada (RDC) until March 31, 2015, the end of CANARIE’s current mandate.
Research Data Canada is a collaborative effort to address the challenges and issues in research data management and preservation in Canada. A multi-sectoral group of universities, institutes, libraries, granting agencies, and individual researchers, RDC has a shared recognition of the pressing need to deal with Canadian data management issues from a national perspective. The group also engages with international groups developing global standards for data management.
The ongoing activities of RDC closely align with the call from the stakeholder community for a coordinated and collaborative approach to research data management. The government has also signaled its intentions to ensure research data, including government data, are made more widely available to users in both public and private sectors. Digital Canada 150, announced by Minister of Industry James Moore in April, included an announcement to develop Open Science to facilitate open access to the publications and related data resulting from federally-funded research. Digital Canada 150 also reiterated the government’s focus on Open Data, which enables access to government data in easily-accessible formats.
Research Data Canada was created in early 2012 in response to recommendations from the Canadian Research Data Summit. Summit participants recognized the need for a coordinating body to convene and coordinate activities among stakeholders. Since its creation, RDC has been supported by NRC Knowledge Management, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, and CANARIE. To meet the needs in the co-ordination and promotion of research data management, RDC needs to ramp up its activities. CANARIE’s support for 2014-15 will make increased activity possible.
Research Data Canada will shortly release a glossary of terms in order to promote shared understanding across the wide diversity of individuals and organizations with a role in research data management. RDC is also coordinating a federated pilot project that involves a number of organizations coming together to meet researchers’ needs for data management. RDC, through its committees, is actively engaged in studying and making recommendations for policies, infrastructure, standards, and needs for training to enable robust research data management. Internationally, RDC is active in the work of the Research Data Alliance – joining with colleagues from around the world to build research data management and interoperability.
“CANARIE heard the community’s feedback and we are doing what we can to advance the agenda,” says Jim Ghadbane, President and CEO of CANARIE. “Research Data Canada’s unique position as a convener of stakeholders and coordinator of strategic activities is critical if Canada is to fully benefit from the use and re-use of knowledge created by researchers and innovators across the country.”
Ted Hewitt, Executive Vice-President of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada added, “Data-driven research has changed the nature of academic inquiry across many disciplines and is opening up rich new areas of study, particularly in the social sciences and humanities. CANARIE’s support of Research Data Canada is an important step towards evolving a more strategic and coordinated digital infrastructure that takes into account the rapidly growing need for data management. As such, it will help to secure Canada’s future research advantage and is a vital component of our continued economic success.”
“Research Data Canada welcomes CANARIE’s support and the confidence it shows by committing to sustain our operations for the coming year,” says Walter Stewart, RDC Co-ordinator. “CANARIE has a long history of supporting innovation in Canada. RDC is honoured to be among the beneficiaries of CANARIE’s leadership.”
ABOUT CANARIE Inc.
CANARIE designs and delivers digital infrastructure and drives its adoption for Canada’s research, education and innovation communities. CANARIE keeps Canada at the forefront of digital research and innovation, fundamental to a vibrant digital economy.
CANARIE’s roots are in advanced networking, and CANARIE continues to evolve the national ultra-high-speed backbone network that enables data-intensive, leading-edge research and big science across Canada and around the world. One million researchers, scientists and students at over 1,100 Canadian institutions, including universities, colleges, research institutes, hospitals, and government laboratories have access to the CANARIE Network.
CANARIE also leads the development of research software tools that enable researchers to more quickly and easily access research data, tools, and peers. In support of Canada’s high-tech entrepreneurs, CANARIE offers cloud-computing services to help them accelerate product development and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.
Twelve provincial and territorial network partners, together with CANARIE, collectively form Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN). This powerful digital infrastructure connects Canadians to national and global data, tools, colleagues, and classrooms that fuel the engine of innovation in today’s digital economy.
Established in 1993, CANARIE is a non-profit corporation, with the major investment in its programs and activities provided by the Government of Canada.
For more information, please visit: www.canarie.ca.
Communications Manager
CANARIE
(613) 943-5432
ela.ienzi@canarie.ca
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