Aotearoa NZ Data Landscape Review

The Aotearoa New Zealand National Committee on Data in Research is a newly established group which brings together a diverse range of experts, communities, and organisations involved in the production, measurement, collection, storage, and use of data in research. The Committee provides a unique forum for identifying the challenges, opportunities, and initiatives which characterise Aotearoa’s current and future research data ecosystem, and connects to the global research ecosystem through national membership roles within such bodies as CODATA, WDS, and RDA. The committee recognises the uniqueness of Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a guiding and innovative force and supports the principles of Indigenous and Māori data sovereignty. A core group (Richard Hartshorn, Tahu Kukutai, Nick Jones, Michelle Blake, Bapon Fakhruddin, Ilze Ziedins) has been assembled to progress the Committee’s goals, and to generate and maintain momentum. Initiation of key projects was rapidly identified as a practical and necessary route to such outcomes.

As an initial project, the core group has identified the need for an Aotearoa data landscape review. Several landscape-type initiatives have been undertaken, but all have major gaps. The AI Forum 2018 report ‘Artificial Intelligence: Shaping a Future New Zealand’ provided limited mapping of the emerging Aotearoa AI landscape, but was largely focused on discussing the economic and societal implications and recommendations for removing barriers and challenges to AI adoption. Issues relating to Māori, mātauranga Māori, and Māori data sovereignty remained largely unaddressed. Furthermore, the challenges inherent in the data lifecycle are much broader than those related to the AI technologies that can be applied at points in that lifecycle.

The Royal Society Te Apārangi 2019 report ‘The age of artificial intelligence in Aotearoa’ summarised the risks and opportunities of AI for Aotearoa, but its main purpose was to connect to a much larger report on AI and wellbeing from the Australian Council of Learned Academies. The now-defunct New Zealand Data Futures Forum produced a range of reports focused on how to accelerate Aotearoa to be the world leader in the trusted use of shared data. None of these initiatives provided a clear summary of the state of data in Aotearoa.

Using the example of the Canadian research data management landscape review, we propose to undertake a landscape review of data in research. The review will:

Summarise the research data landscape in Aotearoa, identifying the key actors, institutions and initiatives in both the public and private sectors.

Identify challenges and opportunities for the current research data ecosystem.

Consider issues relating to Māori data sovereignty.