Sunday, August 17, 2008

Research Data Canada

A Research Data Strategy Working Group is looking at ways of opening new pathways to Canadian research data.

Description of the group's mandate from the web page:

The research process generates huge amounts of data that are an important part of Canada's scholarly record and hold enormous potential as an additional discovery and problem-solving tool for researchers. Unfortunately, there are no nationally adopted standards or policies governing how this data is collected, catalogued or preserved. As a result this data is often inaccessible by other researchers or structured in such a way that it can't be fully exploited for other uses.

The Research Data Strategy Working Group is a collaborative effort to address the challenges and issues surrounding the access and preservation of data arising from Canadian research. This multi-disciplinary group of universities, institutes, libraries, granting agencies, and individual researchers are bonded by a shared recognition of the pressing need to deal with Canadian data management issues. Together, they will focus on the necessary actions, next steps and leadership roles that researchers and institutions can take to ensure Canada's research data is accessible and usable for current and future generations of researchers.

Thanks to Gavin Baker on Open Access News.