Canadian Digital Research Infrastructure Needs Assessment

February saw the publication of the Canadian Digital Research Infrastructure Needs Assessment, a survey of 1,380 Canadian based researchers which included a component on Research Data Management.

Respondents came primarily from the Sciences and Engineering (55 percent), with Social Sciences and Humanities (24), and Health Research (21). Academic faculty provided (62) of the survey. Non-faculty such as graduate students, post-docs, and librarians were the other 38 percent of participants. They were mostly located in universities, and research-intensive universities at that.

Of the RDM sub-sample, there was a 54-46 percent split, with researchers who do not write Data Management Plans in the majority. The modal length of time for research projects was three years (29 percent of respondents).

Researchers use open-source tools; documenting data collection, cleaning, and analysis; and sharing data were shared across disciplines, though the extent to which they do varies according to discipline. Science and Engineers focus on code and high-performance computing; preservation and sharing of data is stronger among social scientists. The social scientist and health researchers also depend more on institutional IT support if they are lucky enough to have it, as a third do not.

Peer-to-peer influencing is critical in awareness building, which was a consistent finding across groups. Likewise, training support is found through institutions, online, and peer-led workshops. The engineers wanted technical training; health researchers prioritise preservation training.

Engineers were also the most satisfied with current infrastructure provision. For the social scientists and health researchers the lack of training opportunities or qualified support for training and infrastructure use was an issue. Researchers also want funding for support provision, particularly sustained and competitive funding for support positions. This is reinforced by the factor of not having enough time to learn how to access, use, or address problems with infrastructure services and issues.

It will be interesting to see if similar findings emerge from work the DCC is involved in on surveying researchers in the EU, UK, and other Associated Countries, as well as comparing to insights from other researcher survey work like figshare's State of Open Data series. All provide insight into how we can help provide effective research support training and infrastructure.