As part of our Canadian DRI Needs Assessment process, NDRIO will host a series of eight Virtual Town Halls between May 4 and 7 to share and validate key findings from our consultations to date, including 105 Position Paper submissions, 20 Current Documentation submissions and 1,400 survey responses.
Preliminary Needs Assessment Findings
The following materials provide an overview of the Needs Assessment process, priorities identified by the Canadian research community through consultations to date, and the preliminary findings related to our four Town Hall themes: 1) Awareness & Accessibility 2) Governance & Policy 3) Operations and 4) Support. Please see further below for more details on these themes and event format.
We encourage you to review the preliminary findings ahead of the Virtual Town Halls to help inform these discussions:
What will the Virtual Town Halls involve?
All eight Virtual Town Halls (four English, four French) will take place via Zoom.
Each session will be 60 minutes long and feature one of four themes: Awareness and Accessibility, Governance and Policy, Operations and Support, designed around the preliminary findings of the Needs Assessment consultations to date. The initial findings of each theme will be briefly presented followed by a moderated breakout session.
The breakout session of each event will be about 30 minutes long and will consist of:
- 15 participants
- A moderator to guide the discussion
- A notetaker to capture discussion points and feedback
At the end of the event, participants within each breakout session will summarize and report back on their conclusions and recommendations for NDRIO’s future consideration.
NDRIO’s Virtual Town Halls are intended to provide a welcoming and supportive environment for discussion and collaboration. We ask all participants to be:
- Respectful
- Open-minded
- Fully present
- Mindful of not interrupting another participant’s discussion point or question
Your registration for or attendance in this event indicates your agreement to abide by these principles. Any individual who engages in a disrespectful manner will be required to exit the event.
Who Should Attend?
The Virtual Town Halls will be of great interest to researchers and other stakeholders of the Canadian DRIlandscape, regardless of discipline, level of engagement with DRI tools or research experience. We encourage the attendance of the broader research community, including:
- Researchers
- Senior Administration of academic and research institutions (e.g., Vice-Presidents Research, Chief Information Officers, Chief Librarians, etc. )
- Research Support Staff
- Research Administration Staff
- Librarians
- Infrastructure providers
- Service providers
- Funders
Event Timing & Themes
Event registration is now closed. Preliminary findings related to the event themes are outlined in the above PDFand video.
Town Hall 1: Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Theme: Awareness and Accessibility
Discussion Topics:
- Awareness of existing digital research infrastructure and services available to all researchers in Canada
- How to improve access to funding (e.g., more equitable funding allocation)
- Bilingualism/Internationalization
- Accessibility to digital research infrastructure to all researchers, regardless of disability type or severity of impairment
English Session: 1 – 2pm EDT
French Session: 3 – 4pm EDT
Town Hall 2: Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Theme: Governance and Policy
Discussion Topics:
- Collaboration and trusted relationships with Indigenous Peoples, including Indigenous data sovereignty
- Jurisdictional, legislative, and regulatory barriers to sharing Personally Identifiable Information and health data
- Collaboration with industry and private sector
- Open science mandates
- Data privacy
English Session: 1 – 2pm EDT
French Session: 10:30 – 11:30am EDT
Town Hall 3: Thursday, May 6, 2021
Theme: Operations
Discussion Topics:
- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion across researchers, research disciplines, institution, and geography
- Collaboration with the Tri-Agency and Service Providers (national and regional)
- Community engagement
- International engagement
- Centralization vs. distribution of infrastructure, including Commercial Cloud and High-Performance Computing Operations
- Identity management and cybersecurity
- Key performance indicators
English Session: 1 – 2pm EDT
French Session: 10:30 – 11:30am EDT
Town Hall 4: Friday, May 7, 2021
Theme: Support
Discussion Topics:
- Education, training and retention of Highly Qualified Personnel
- Stratified support: from national services to institutional support
English Session: 1 – 2pm EDT
French Session: 10:30 – 11:30am EDT