Developing Guidance on Trustworthy Data Repository Characteristics for Canadian Research

Wednesday May 13, 2026

From 2:15pm to 2:45pm

Open Access / Open Scholarship

The Data Repositories Expert Group (DREG) for the Digital Research Alliance of Canada is developing guidance on trustworthy data repository characteristics for Canada, reflecting Canadian data sovereignty best practices. This guidance will inform researchers selecting data repositories in fulfillment of the data deposit requirement of the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy, which is anticipated to take effect in late 2026. The work includes a landscape review and stakeholder consultation to identify the most important data repository characteristics. While the guidance is aiming to be fit-for-purpose in a Canadian research data context, insights from similar international activities are informing our efforts.

This project working group has been gaining collective momentum since its initial collaborative multi-sector conception between DREG and the Tri-Agencies in late 2025, and the recruitment of diverse working group members in early 2026. Creative collaborations are underway to ensure meaningful stakeholder input and to conceptualize complementary promotion for and decision-making resources to the guidance.

In this session, an overview of the project will be presented including its purpose, process, and planned deliverables. Next, a summary of the landscape review and an initial listing of characteristics will be shared and discussed with the audience. Finally, as a means for stakeholder input to this initiative, an interactive activity will be conducted to help prioritize and rank the importance of these characteristics, and to identify use case dependencies that may exist.