The iReceptor team was well represented at recent meetings in Ottawa that focused on Canadian Cyberinfrastructure and Data Management.
Scientific Director Felix Breden presented at the CANARIE Research Data Management (RDM) Workshop on February 4th. The CANARIE program funds Canadian research software tools and national research data management initiatives and was one of the early funders of the iReceptor project. Dr. Breden updated the community on the current development of the iReceptor Gateway and plans to expand the data types covered by the iReceptor data model. This will be a direct response from the immunotherapy community, especially for management of data from new single cell immune platforms, and will be funded by a new RDM Call 2 grant from CANARIE.
This workshop was followed by a two-day Summit examining a National Data Services Framework (NDSF). At this meeting, representatives from major Canadian data initiatives strove for consensus on what minimal requirements define a national data service (NDS), and what resources would be necessary to produce this service. As an example of a successful data service for one domain, iReceptor Technical Director Brian Corrie presented how the AIRR Community standards and protocols for data sharing have been essential for the development of the iReceptor Project.
The major presentations and the strong presence of iReceptor team at the Ottawa meetings shows the power of the community-driven, federated model that iReceptor has championed for more than 6 years. We look forward to developing the iReceptor Ecosystem and helping frame the broader discussion of Data Management in Canada.