As required by the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy, each post-secondary institution and research hospital eligible to administer CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC funds is required to create an institutional RDM strategy by March 1, 2023.
The Institutional Research Data Management (RDM) Strategy will reflect the particular circumstances of the University—for example, institution size, research intensity, and existing RDM capacity—and will outline how TMU will provide its researchers with an environment which enables and supports research data management. The RDM strategy will include the following elements:
- recognize data as an important research output;
- support researchers in their efforts to establish and implement data management practices that are consistent with ethical, legal and commercial obligations, as well as tri-agency requirements, including the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – 2nd edition, the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research, and other relevant policies;
- promote the importance of data management to researchers, staff and students;
- guide researchers on how to properly manage data in accordance with the principles outlined in the Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management, including the development of data management plans;
- commit to the adoption of established best practices when developing institutional standards and policies for data management plans;
- support access to, repository services or other platforms that securely preserve, curate and provide appropriate access to research data;
- recognize that data created in the context of research by and with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, collectives and organizations will be managed according to principles developed and approved by those communities, collectives and organizations, and in partnership with them;
- recognize that a distinctions-based approach is needed to ensure that the unique rights, interests and circumstances of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit are acknowledged, affirmed, and implemented.
In response to this requirement, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU)’s Institutional Research Data Management Strategy Working Group has completed a draft of the TMU Institutional Research Data Management Strategy for consultation. More information about this work is available here: https://library.torontomu.ca/rdmstrategy/