Funding, News and Announcements
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News
The Alliance awards $164 thousand to McMaster University for the Expansion of Lunaris
The Alliance has awarded $164 thousand in funding to McMaster University for a new partnership on the expansion of Lunaris. This initiative forms part of the Alliance’s DRI Investments for 2023-25, and will benefit researchers by enhancing research data discovery. The aim of this initiative is to improve data discoverability in Lunaris, the Alliance’s bilingual research data discovery service, by expanding the support and development team. Through this initiative, McMaster University will host two positions, providing additional capacity to facilitate service improvements. Investments in Lunaris will ensure that researchers receive high-quality national data discovery services, add value to publicly funded research and help Canada become a leader in the expanding global community of open research.
Call for nominations to the Alliance Board of Directors
The Alliance is recruiting new directors to serve on the Board of Directors. If you are passionate about advancing digital research infrastructure and want to help advance the Alliance’s mission and strategic priorities, then please apply. The Alliance continually strives to represent a diversity of voices, experiences and perspectives within the organization. We encourage individuals from underrepresented communities to apply, in keeping with our commitment to the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. Candidates can submit their applications online by May 15, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
Volunteer for the Alliance’s Merit Review Committee
The Alliance will soon be recruiting volunteer experts for its Merit Review Committee to support upcoming funding opportunities. The success of funding calls depends on the participation of experts from the digital research infrastructure (DRI) ecosystem to review funding applications. If you have an interest in getting involved, please fill out the Merit Review Committee Form.
The Alliance's Corporate Plan 2024-25: improving DRI services, access and functionality
The Alliance is pleased to share its 2024-25 Corporate Plan, as approved by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). The planned activities for 2024-25 demonstrate the Alliance’s commitment to fulfilling the initiatives in the Multi-Year Funding Proposal, as well as activities to improve DRI services, access and functionality. The Alliance is also preparing its 2025-30 strategic plan and vision for the future of Canadian DRI, focusing on the growing needs of the Canadian research ecosystem as well as emerging opportunities and technologies.
Federal Budget 2024: important investments in research and innovation
The Alliance applauds the Government of Canada’s significant commitment to investing in research and innovation in Budget 2024. Additional funding for the three granting councils, along with ongoing investments in large scientific facilities and endeavours, signals the importance of basic and applied research. The enhancements to post-graduate scholarships and post-doctoral fellowships will build and support the next generation of researchers and innovators in Canada. The Alliance will continue to advocate to ensure that Canada’s researchers and innovators have the right DRI tools, services, and personnel to remain competitive. Read our full statement on the budget.
Call for participation: Lunaris User Community Group
Lunaris is seeking new members for a User Community Group. Anyone who uses or has an interest in Lunaris to discover or facilitate the reuse of research data in Canada is encouraged to participate. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss data sharing and reuse with other professionals, provide feedback on the state of the service, participate in user experience studies and influence the development of Lunaris. If you are interested in participating, please join the Google Group. This is an open-ended call, and the group will continue to accept new members.
2024 Resource Allocations Competition results
The computational resources awarded through the 2024 Resource Allocations Competition (RAC) are available to researchers as of April 3, 2024. This competition round received 670 applications. Ongoing growth in researcher demand for resources means that demand continues to outstrip supply. This year’s competition was able to award, on average, 42% of the total compute requested, 76% of the total storage requested, 21% of the total RGU-years requested and 70% of the total vCPUs requested on the Arbutus, Béluga, Cedar and Graham clouds. The Alliance national systems will be replaced by spring 2025 as a result of $225 million in capital funding received from federal, provincial and institutional sources. The new systems will result in a significant increase of compute and storage resources available to researchers, as well as increased reliability and availability. For more details, please visit the 2024 Resource Allocations Competition results
FAIR4RS
As a founding member of the Research Software Alliance (ReSA), the Alliance is participating in evolving FAIR4RS efforts. The FAIR Principles for Research Software (FAIR4RS) were published in 2022, and a number of organizations were already planning to implement the principles at that time. The latest blog post from ReSA provides an update on initiatives working to implement the principles across five areas of cultural change: policies, incentives, communities, training and infrastructure.
2024 Alliance Community Roadshow in Review: Sharing our Vision for the Future of DRI in Canada
In January 2024, the Alliance kicked off a national roadshow to share our future vision for DRI in Canada. 39 meetings were held across six cities (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax) with key members of the DRI community, including academic institutions, regional organizations, research organizations and provincial governments. Discussions focused on the process as well as the results from a jurisdictional analysis exercise, benchmarking activities, and emerging DRI trends in research. Thank you to those who took the time to meet and share feedback, support and recommendations. We will continue to engage the DRI community throughout the building phase, and thereafter. Learn more about our 25-30 mandate renewal and vision.
Events
May 27 - 28, 2024 — DRI Connect
The Alliance is hosting the 2024 DRI Connect in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This event is designed for networking, exploring and knowledge-sharing among advanced research computing, research data management and research software professionals working for and with the Alliance.
May 9, 2024 — Open Educational Resources in Research Data Management webinar series: RDM in the Canadian Context
The Alliance’s National Training Expert Group is hosting a webinar series on Canadian open educational resources for research data management. This session will continue to build on the concept of OERs, highlight the open access textbook Research Data Management in the Canadian Context, discuss four use cases on how the textbook is being used to inform RDM practices across various contexts, and facilitate a discussion around the continued use of this resource.
Visit our Training Calendar for online and in-person training events offered by our advanced research computing regional partners.
Work With Us
If you would like to help us advance and invest in national DRI activities that will allow researchers to achieve scientific breakthrough and research excellence, please apply to our open positions today.
Secondment opportunities
The opportunities below are for individuals who will remain employed by their organization and will work under the direction and supervision of the Alliance for a specific project or period.
- Service Catalogue Lead (secondment opportunity)
- Business Development and Partnerships Lead (secondment opportunity)
- Lead Technical Architect (secondment opportunity)
- Senior Financial Modeling Analyst (secondment opportunity)
Become an Alliance Member
The Alliance is accepting applications to join its growing membership of over 100 Canadian post-secondary institutions and research organizations. Become part of a national, bilingual not-for-profit organization accelerating Canada’s research future. We invite you to learn about Alliance membership and its benefits by emailing membership-adhesion@alliancecan.ca and visiting Become a member.