Updated Landscape Analysis Highlights Canada’s Humanities and Social Sciences Digital Research Infrastructure
The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) and the Érudit Consortium have partnered to has develop and release an updated landscape analysis of digital research infrastructure (DRI) supporting humanities and social sciences (HSS) research in Canada.
HSS research is vital and depends on infrastructure that preserves and advances knowledge for generations to come. Building on several years of collaboration among key HSS DRI organizations and researchers—including the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN), the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Humanities Data Lab, the Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) Partnership, the Linked Infrastructure for Networked Cultural Scholarship (LINCS), the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), and Scholars Portal—this project maps the organizations and initiatives that make up the HSS DRI ecosystem.
Updated following community feedback, the analysis now includes 13 key organizations and 33 initiatives. It highlights strong activity across areas such as open access, publishing, repositories, research data management, and preservation, as well as a high level of collaboration across the sector. These organizations play a critical role in enabling cutting-edge research and supporting scholars who rely on this infrastructure.
The analysis also points to ongoing challenges, particularly around sustainability and funding. Current funding models often do not align with the long-term, coordinated investment required to support digital research infrastructure, placing pressure on organizations to compete for limited resources.
This work represents an important step toward building a more coordinated, community-led, and sustainable HSS DRI ecosystem in Canada. CRKN and Érudit are working with partners across the community to advance this shared vision and invite governments, funders, and institutional partners to support it.
The complete landscape analysis is available on our website.