Decentralizing Data for Climate‑Smart Research: Policy, Infrastructure, and Trust
Apr 8 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm EDT
Canada’s climate, agriculture, health, and biodiversity challenges demand research data that are findable, responsibly shareable, and resilient. Yet centralized repositories, siloed governance, and cross‑border dependencies limit trust, flexibility, and sovereignty—especially for Indigenous and other sensitive data. This panel examines decentralized approaches—federated collaboration tools, interoperable metadata standards, and decentralized identity/credentials—that let institutions and communities retain control while enabling discovery and secure access at national scale. What does “decentralized” look like in practice for human and non‑human data? Where can Canada align policy, standards, and funding to unlock value for researchers, conservation groups, startups, and infrastructure providers? Speakers with contrasting viewpoints—from cautious industry users to open data champions and sensitive‑data stewards—will debate tradeoffs in security, sovereignty, implementation, and incentives, and surface near‑term policy/implementation steps (e.g., national discovery metadata, DIDs/VCs pilots, and capacity‑building pathways).
