Institutional Response to Draft Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy (PDAD&C #18)

Earlier this year, the three federal research funding agencies—the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (the agencies)—invited individuals, associations, organizations, and institutions to provide feedback on the draft Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy, which aims to support Canadian research excellence by fostering sound digital data management and data stewardship practices. The Policy follows the consultation and release in 2016 of the Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management.

Given the importance of data management for the U of T community, and the unique aspects of data management in different areas of scholarship, we solicited feedback in order to inform U of T’s institutional response. A call for input was distributed within the University community through the Provost’s Weekly Digest and a Research Alert. To solicit further feedback and advise on the institutional response, a working group chaired by Professor Lorraine Ferris, Associate Vice-President, Research Oversight & Compliance, was formed and included members from the University of Toronto Libraries and the Office of the Chief Information Officer. The Research Advisory Board, which includes members from across all academic divisions and representatives from affiliated hospitals, was a venue for discussion on our final institutional response.

I thank the University community for their input. The University’s submission is available online.