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Past Achievements

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Past Achievements

Canada has been involved with CODATA since its creation in 1966, and was of the original National Members. If you are interested in the history of CODATA you can peruse the CODATA Newsletters, which have been archived since the 1st edition. This page reflects more recent activity for CODATA, which is currently undergoing a period of revitalization to better intersect with current national and international data-focused organizations.

 

  • The CNC has typically met a few times per year, with a hiatus during 2019-2020 to re-frame the Terms of reference and membership. The new Members will be announced in the Fall of 2020.
  • Canada has undergone substantial change in the “data management” context in the last 2 years in particular.
    • As early as 2001, there were attempts to strengthen data management and preservation in Canada, including the creation of a working group sponsored by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council which proposed the re-establishment of a data archive. There was no action taken on this at the time.
    • In 2008 a group of institutions and individuals invested in the development of a national strategy for research data management formed a group called the Research Data Strategy Working Group. The RDSWG itself emerged from earlier efforts to raise interest in research data at a federal level and to promote an investment in research data infrastructure, one that would help preserve the output of publicly funded research in Canada. These early efforts included the participation of universities, institutes, libraries, granting agencies and individual researchers – including representatives from CNC CODATA. The RDSWG continued the conversation with a variety of efforts, culminating in a meeting in September 2011 where over 150 senior researchers, high-level policy makers, university administrators, and members of the private sector, convened in Ottawa for the first National Data Summit. A key set of recommendations from the Summit report led to the creation of RDC, which was intended to replace the RDSWG and form a “national coordination mechanism.”
    • The inaugural Chair of RDC (Pam Bjornson) was also the senior person at NRC responsible for CNC CODATA, and was key to the development of a national data management strategy for Canada. She was responsible for the first National Data Summit in Canada, which was influential in the subsequent development of national data management organizations.
    • A series of Research Data Summits have been held yearly since that time, and there has also been substantial investment to support and transform the landscape in Canada.
      • The responsibility for putting this strategy into action has been allocated to a New Digital Research Infrastructure Organization (NDRIO), which is in the early stages of development.
    • The CNC and NRC were responsible for promoting DataCite in Canada in the early years, culminating in the formation of DataCite Canada at NRC, which later evolved to become the DataCite Canada Consortium in 2020.
  • CNC CODATA established the Sangster Award in 2003 through the patronage of Dr. James Sangster, and is no longer offered. The award, valued at Can. $3000, enabled a Canadian graduate student enrolled in a Canadian university, or recent graduate (within 3 years of graduation and of Canadian citizenship), to attend and present his or her work at International CODATA Conferences.
    • Sangster Award 2016 (student travel award to the CODATA conference in Denver)
    • Sangster Award 2012 (student travel award to the CODATA conference in Taipei)
    • Sangster Award 2008 (student travel award to the CODATA conference in Kyiv)
    • Sangster Award 2006 (student travel award to the CODATA conference in Beijing)
    • Sangster Award 2004 (student travel award to the CODATA conference in Berlin)