(Ottawa, June 2, 2022)
The closing remarks at the 2022 Canadian Research Software Conference, held earlier this week in Montreal, marked the end of CANARIE’s strategic mandate to evolve research software tools, and the transition of this mandate to the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance). This transition reflects a key milestone in the Government of Canada’s Digital Research Infrastructure Strategy. The Alliance is committed to advancing research software as a key component of Canadian digital research infrastructure through funding opportunities, strategic partnerships, and capacity-building
CANARIE has invested more than $51M in research software since 2007, when it launched the Network-Enabled Platforms (NEP) program. Many of those inaugural research platforms have evolved and remain in use today, including CBRAIN, Oceans 2.0 (now Oceans 3.0), and CANFAR. Advancing from the early days of the NEP, CANARIE’s Research Software Program funded the development of research software tools and platforms, reusable research software platforms, local research software support teams on campus, and the research software registry (science.canarie.ca).
As the Alliance works to develop its approach to a comprehensive software registry, CANARIE will wind down its registry at the end of August 2022.
“I would like to thank the members of our Research Advisory and Software Technical Advisory Committees, who helped steer CANARIE’s Research Software Program over the years, and to the many research software teams that developed and advanced research software platforms and tools,” said Mark Wolff, Chief Technology Officer at CANARIE. “The guidance of the community was essential to our approach, and we look forward to the ongoing evolution of these innovative tools.”
“We will continue to engage the research community to evolve research software and other digital research infrastructure tools to enable researchers in Canada to lead in the knowledge economy on the world stage,” said Ghilaine Roquet, Vice President, Strategy and Planning at the Alliance. “We thank CANARIE for its work in laying a strong foundation to advance the use and capabilities of these critical research tools.”
Community members can learn more about the Alliance’s work in research software by subscribing to their newsletter.
Research software developers that may have questions about science.canarie.ca should contact software@canarie.ca.