{"id":3087,"date":"2025-10-09T09:31:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/codata.org\/blog\/?p=3087"},"modified":"2025-10-09T09:31:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:31:37","slug":"david-castle-candidacy-for-codata-executive-committee-ordinary-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/codata.org\/blog\/2025\/10\/09\/david-castle-candidacy-for-codata-executive-committee-ordinary-member\/","title":{"rendered":"David Castle: Candidacy for CODATA Executive Committee Ordinary Member"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is the third in the series of short statements from candidates in the coming CODATA Elections at <\/span><\/i>the General Assembly to be held on 17-18 October 2025<\/span><\/i><\/a>. David Castle is a candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>He was nominated by the World Data System Scientific Committee.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I am a Professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria, Canada. My area of expertise is in science, technology and innovation policy, and I have\u00a0<\/span>written<\/span><\/a>\u00a0about national and sub-national systems of research and innovation, as well as more specialized works on life science innovation. My current research program, called\u00a0<\/span>BIOSCAN<\/span><\/a>, is a biodiversity genomics project that is part of the International Barcode of Life Consortium (<\/span>iBOL<\/span><\/a>). We work with\u00a0<\/span>open<\/span><\/a>\u00a0data supported by the Barcode of Life Data System (<\/span>BOLD<\/span><\/a>) to identify species, characterize their interactions, and study ecosystem dynamics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the last several years, I have spent most of my time working for the\u00a0<\/span>Chief Science Advisor<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to the Prime Minister of Canada. My portfolio includes open science, data governance, research security and biodiversity. I was part of the Canadian negotiating team at\u00a0<\/span>COP15<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and was focused on access and benefits sharing related to digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources. I was on the Canadian delegation negotiating position on DSI for COP16 in Cali, Columbia, from which Decision 16.2 on DSI arose.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition academic and government work, I have contributed to OECD expert advisory groups on\u00a0<\/span>digital skills<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>mobilizing science<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in times of crises. I was a member of the expert advisory group for the Public Health Agency of Canada\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy<\/span><\/a>\u00a0through which we created a national\u00a0<\/span>Health Data Charter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0embedded in our third report. I chair the Scientific Advisory Committee of the\u00a0<\/span>Council of Canadian Academies<\/span><\/a>, and I recently joined the AI and Data Governance Standardization\u00a0<\/span>Collaborative<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/a>of the Standards Council of Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

With this background one can probably surmise why I would be interested in a role on the Executive Comittee with CODATA. There is, however, one significant additional detail that explains my motivation for accepting the nomination for the position. I have been a member of, and now chair, the\u00a0<\/span>Scientific Committee<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of the World Data System. Last year we released our second\u00a0<\/span>Action Plan 2025-2027<\/span><\/a>, which generated better alignment with the goals of the International Science Council, and established four objectives for the WDS:<\/span><\/p>\n