Participate in the consultation for the update of the Canadian Research and Development Classification (CRDC) 2020 V1.0

Introduction

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and Statistics Canada have collaboratively developed and released a new Canadian Research and Development Classification (CRDC) 2020 Version 1.0 in October 2020. This shared standard classification is available for use by the federal research granting agencies, Statistics Canada and any other organization or individual that find it useful to implement. The CRDC is aligned with international research and development classification standards.

Statistics Canada, as custodian of the CRDC, and its close partner research funding agencies, have agreed to undertake minor revisions of the classification every year or two, and major revision every five years. In fact, all parties already agreed that the first CRDC 2020 version 1.0 will be revised within 2 years of its first release date, and on a five-year cycle after that, with the possibility of 'evergreening' for minor changes once a year to reflect the changes in the research fields. We now have the opportunity to revise the CRDC 2020 V1.0 after being released for more than 2 years.

This consultation is only targeted toward Field of research (FOR) of the CRDC 2020 V1.0.

Objective of the consultation

This consultation aims to gather feedback from users who have already implemented the classification, as well as other interested parties who might want to suggest updates or changes, but not significant conceptual or structural ones (which are reserved for the 5-year revision cycle).

Federal research funding agencies, Statistics Canada’s statistical programs related to R&D data, members of the research community and their partners, and Canadians who feel the need for the CRDC 2020 V1.0 to be revised at this time, are invited to provide feedback for the revision of the Field of research (FOR) of the CRDC Version 1.0.

The feedback will be analyzed, and recommendations for changes or revisions to the CRDC will be made, following 2 key steps:

1. Collection of feedback and data to assess classification revision needs and gaps
   1. Launch of a consultation process that will capture the needs and gaps of the CRDC 2020 V1.0 - FOR as perceived mainly by the federal research granting agencies, Statistics Canada and the research community
   2. Analysis of data collected at the research funding agencies to identify any missing fields of research
2. Review of CRDC 2020 V1.0 - FOR and validation of proposed changes
   1. Review of feedback and analysis to inform any possible revisions
   2. Validation of proposed revisions with field expertise

Closing date

This consultation is opened from August 8, 2023 to September 22, 2023.

How to provide feedback during the consultation?

This consultation is now closed.

This consultation is no longer available.

The federal granting agencies and Statistics Canada will take into account feedback received from this consultation to finalize the new version of the Canadian Research and Development Classification, which will be published in early 2024.

A report summarizing the findings of this consultation will be published on the Statistics Canada website later in 2024.

Thank You

We thank all respondents for their interest and participation in this consultation.