Research data management

In Canada, the federal granting agencies (SSHRC, NSERC and CIHR) have published their own policies.

Key deliverables of the policy

1. Research data management plan : from March 2022, data management plans will gradually become a requirement for grant applications.

   • If this is the case for you, your Research & Transfer advisor will tell you how you can get help in drawing up your data management plan.

2. Institutional strategy : As required by the policy, on February 15, 2023, HEC Montréal published an “Institutional Research Data Management Strategy” (avaliable in French only) and informed the responsible organizations.

   • In no case will the school's policy run counter to your contractual or ethical commitments. For example, if you cannot share data for licensing reasons, the policy cannot require it. 

3. Data repository : following the filing of corporate strategies, funding agencies will gradually adopt the repository requirement.

   • Once again, granting bodies will not be able to demand that you share or even retain data if there are limits (contractual, ethical, commercial, etc.) preventing you from doing so. 

What are the obligations?

• Research data must be managed in compliance with all commercial, legal and ethical obligations.
• All data must be managed, but it need not all be shared or preserved, if it is not considered informative and of appropriate quality, or to comply with the terms of partnership contracts, privacy protection or ethical rules.
• The contents of management plans vary from project to project, but where required, all data management plans must include the following details: 

• how data will be collected, documented, formatted, protected and stored;
• how existing data sets will be used, and what new data will be created over the course of the research project;
• how data will be communicated, if applicable;
• where the data will be stored.