Research and innovation strategic to pending Open Government action plan

Unlocking federal research and data

Open government (OG) is set to take a significant step forward with the imminent release of a new action plan that includes research, innovation and evidence-based decisions among its major tenets. The revised policy aims to accelerate the use of federally funded research and data by the private sector, academics and the public, underpinning the Liberal government's pledge to make federal science more transparent and accessible to external users and collaborators, as emphasized in ministerial mandate letters and the Speech from the Throne.

Led by the Treasury Board Secretariat, the initiative will be submitted to Cabinet in the coming weeks, followed by the public release of an Action Plan containing a series of commitments under the themes of: open by default; fiscal transparency; innovation, prosperity and sustainable development; and national and global engagement.

Canada joined the 69-member Open Government Partnership in 2012 and in 2013 signed on to the G8 Open Government Charter. The OGC establishes a set of open data principles and best practices required for releasing and reusing government data (www.opengovpartnership.org). This was followed by the launch of a new web portal (www.opencanada.ca) in 2014 and a directive on open government that provided support for departments and agencies on OG policies and practices.

The new action plan will likely go further, taking advantage of opportunities to expand potential benefits from OG, including scientific research and government contracting. The plan reflects the Liberal government's commitment to break from the restrictive access policies of the previous administration.

"There are tons of opportunities to innovate," says Mélanie Robert, executive director of Treasury Board Secretariat's Information Management and Open Government, adding that there will be more access to data by public servants and an enhanced open data exchange. "Look at the new commitments ... Open science is part of the mandate."

The use of government-generated data holds great potential as companies begin to appreciate its value, although Robert says it's still early days and will require prioritization to incent uptake. She notes that Natural Resources Canada is leading the way with its GeoConnections initiative that can assist the private sector and all levels of government to improve decision making on economic, social and environmental priorities.

"Some departments are pioneers so we need to harvest the lessons learned and apply them to other departments," says Robert. "With the new government, there's a discipline around performance and indicators."

Treasury Board's OG budget doubled

The enhancement of the government's OG plan was facilitated by an infusion of $11.5 million over five years in the latest federal Budget, effectively doubling Treasury Board's funding for the OG initiative. The new financial support is further augmented by $12.9 million over five years to increase public access to personal information held by government.

"Innovation is an important and key element of any action plan," says Robert.

The federal government's own web portal is complemented by portals established by five provinces -Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia and Newfoundland. Another three - Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island - have made commitments to increased transparency and openness but as yet there is only limited collaboration on strategic development and coordination, with a longer-term objective of pan-Canadian integration.

"The Government is committed to accelerating and expanding open data initiatives and to better involving Canadians in policy-making. Budget 2016 proposes to provide $11.5 million over five years to double the Treasury Board Secretariat's budget for open government activities. This funding will allow the Treasury Board Secretariat to enhance its capacity to support engagement with Canadians, to design and deliver an ambitious open government strategy and to accelerate the provision of digital content." - Budget 2016

To be decided is whether OG will be centralized through Treasury Board or distributed to departments and agencies, allowing them to determine their own level of commitment, with Treasury Board acting as support.

"Individual ministers have their own commitments for which they are accountable (and) all have open government and transparency in their mandate letters," says Robert. "Treasury Board Secretariat will coordinate the action plan for now, helping to enable and issue directives and policies."

OG and open by default are relatively new activities and Canada is actively engaged with other nations through the OGP and the OECD to derive best practices and adapt them to the Canadian context.

OGP Obligations

By being a member of OGP, Canada is obligated to submit a national action plan every two years, with July as the deadline for the latest iteration. Established in 2011 with five grand challenges, the OPG's mandate is to "promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance ... overseen by a Steering Committee including representatives of governments and civil society organizations".

In-person and on-line consultations with stakeholders and citizens is also informing and feeding into the new action plan

Granting council open access policy

In a parallel development last year, the federal granting agencies formally implemented a Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications to make peer-reviewed journal publications available to the widest possible audience. The Tri-Agency Data Management Policy is still under development, and is being led by SSHRC.

By establishing a harmonized tri-council policy, the granting agencies are "a bit ahead of the curve", says Monique Zaloum, manager of policy development and strategic planning at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

"The benefits of open access are broad, with more sharing of research, knowledge translation and impact," says Zaloum. "Researchers get more exposure and there's better access to evidence for researchers and businesses."

The tri-council policy also puts the researchers they support in an advantageous position when it comes to partnering with the government and the private sector on exploiting data sets, particularly geospatial data from which novel new applications can be developed.

"There are a lot of players involved. Our policy is a piece in the bigger innovation system" says Zaloum, pointing to the Canadian Healthy Oceans Network as an example of government-academic collaboration.

"There's a lot of momentum globally and most agencies have open access policies ... We engage and follow developments. We're aligned."

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