Create Change Canada

As scholarship has become increasingly data-intensive — the result of digital technologies and networks — it is important to ensure that many types of digital data can be reused for purposes that go well beyond those for which they were collected. This was addressed in the final report of the National Consultation on Access to Scientific Research Data (NCASRD). NCASRD was a partnership initiative of the National Research Council Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

Complex and rich arrays of scientific databases are changing how research is done, speeding discovery and creating new concepts. Increased access will accelerate these changes, creating a new world of research and a whole new world. When these databases are combined within and between disciplines and countries, fundamental leaps in knowledge can occur that transform our understanding of life, the world and the universe. (p. 1)

NCASRD final report [English / Français]

Here are some examples of how digital data resources are being leveraged in a variety of fields:

In astrophysics:

• The Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC) provides access to the CADC's archives as well as other publicly available astronomical datasets. Their efforts ensure that the maximum possible scientific exploitation of every observation obtained at the world-class observatories supported in whole or in part by the NRC is achieved.
  Canadian Astronomy Data Centre [English / Français]

Computational biology has emerged from the potential to mine diverse digital data resources such as:

• GenBank and its counterparts in the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration. These bring together gene sequences produced in laboratories throughout the world in an openly accessible online archive. The free and rapid access to this information allows scientists to study and compare the same data as their colleagues nearly anywhere in the world, and makes possible collaborative research that will lead ultimately to improved health and cures for diseases.

In the social sciences:

• The Research Data Centre Program (RDC) [English / Français] provides researchers with access, in a secure university setting, to microdata from population and household surveys. RDC is part of an initiative by Statistics Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and university consortia to help strengthen Canada's social research capacity and to support the policy research community. There are currently nine RDC's across Canada open to researchers who have been approved through a peer-review process.