Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository, is a bilingual, multi-disciplinary, secure, Canadian research data repository, supported by academic libraries and research institutions across Canada. Borealis supports open discovery, management, sharing, and preservation of Canadian research data.
Borealis is available to researchers who are affiliated with a participating Canadian university or research organization and their collaborators. Borealis is a shared service provided in partnership with Canadian regional academic library consortia, institutions, research organizations, and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, with technical infrastructure hosted by Scholars Portal and the University of Toronto Libraries.
Researchers receive support from local academic libraries and research organizations to facilitate the deposit, publishing, sharing, preservation, and discovery of research data. Read more about our Partners.
The Borealis software is based on the open-source data repository application The Dataverse Project, which is developed by the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard University, with contributors from around the world. Since the launch of the platform in 2012 (formerly Scholars Portal Dataverse), the Borealis team actively participates in RDM software development to support and respond to the needs of Canadian researchers. As a national infrastructure provider, Borealis has been a member of the Global Dataverse Community Consortium since 2021.
The Borealis repository supports the FAIR principles for scientific data management and stewardship by ensuring data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. Value-added features to enhance data discovery, access, and use, along with preservation of research data, are outlined below:
Our mission is to provide a scalable, secure, reliable, and bilingual Canadian research data repository service in partnership with academic libraries and other research organizations to enhance open sharing, discovery, access, preservation, and reuse of research data.
Our current participating institutions and research organizations.
Canadian institutions and research organizations can participate in the research data repository service through an agreement with Borealis. Each partner institution or organization is provided with its own collection space for institutional research. Datasets from researchers affiliated with Borealis partners are published in institutional collections or sub-collections. Interested users wishing to test Borealis can access the demo platform.
The Borealis team is responsible for setting up institutional and organizational collections in the repository. Local institutional and organizational collection managers are responsible for data curation and user support. Additional support for service administration, including agreement management, invoicing, and service governance, is provided by regional academic library consortia and the University of Toronto Libraries.
Contact us for more information.
Borealis offers researchers a place to securely store, manage, publish, share, and support discovery and reuse of your research data. The bilingual, multidisciplinary, and secure repository is hosted on Canadian infrastructure, and supported by academic libraries and research institutions across Canada. Borealis supports open discovery, management, sharing, and preservation of Canadian research data.
Anyone can search, view, and download open data without an account. Anyone can create an account, but only authorized users of participating institutions and their collaborators can deposit data into Borealis. Researchers who are affiliated with a participating institution or organization should contact the institutional service and collection manager for details about depositing and collaborating. Research data management and related research services are also available.
Visit our Partners for participating institutions and research organizations.
Read our User Guide for more details.
Borealis is governed in partnership by a national Borealis Steering Committee, with member representatives from the service provider (University of Toronto Libraries), regional academic library consortia, Council of Atlantic Academic Libraries (CAAL-CBPA), Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL), Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), and Partenariat des bibliothèques universitaires du Québec (PBUQ), and and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.
The Borealis Steering Committee provides oversight and is responsible for the continued successful functioning of the service. The Steering Committee sets strategic priorities and actions, advises the Borealis Director on new initiatives and developments, and operates under the following governing principles:
The establishment of an Expert Advisory Council is forthcoming and will provide expert and researcher advice to the Steering Committee on matters related to the Borealis repository, including services and developments, storage needs, policies, and various research and community initiatives associated with the Borealis repository. Figure 1 provides a diagram of the governance structure, including the Steering Committee, Expert Advisory Council, and the Borealis team (described below). More details about the Borealis Governance, including the membership of the Steering Committee, bylaws, and procedures will be announced in 2024.
The Borealis Team is responsible for the overall operations and maintenance of the repository. The team consists of staff from a number of participating institutions, totalling 4.5 full-time equivalents (FTEs) and includes:
As shown in Figure 2, the Borealis repository hosts institutional collections that are solely administered and managed by designated institutional staff at participating libraries, institutions, and research organizations in Canada. Some institutions provide sub-collections to individual researchers and/or groups. Additional non-institutional collections can be created, which require sponsorship by at least one or more participating institutions or organizations.
Community support for institutional administrators and interested members is facilitated by the Borealis Dataverse Community Facilitation Team (see Figure 3), which is composed of the following members from the Borealis Team and the Dataverse North Expert Group, which is part of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada’s Research Data Management Network of Experts (asterisks indicate co-chairs):
The Dataverse North Expert Group brings together Dataverse providers, libraries, and administrators to coordinate local and national training, working groups, support services, outreach strategies, and community development. The Borealis Dataverse Administrator community benefits from a wide audience of experts on Dataverse, data curation, digital preservation, and other relevant topics who collaborate on initiatives and share knowledge. Engagement with the community is made possible through monthly virtual meetings, special events, and a moderated email list-serv.
Borealis is a research data repository service offered to libraries, institutions, and research organizations in Canada. The repository is available to individual researchers and groups of participating member institutions, and is subject to policies governing use at each institution. In addition to supporting deposited collections, Borealis is a repository for data users. Users can search, discover, and reuse research data when appropriate. Borealis encourages open and appropriate discovery and access to Canadian research data for data users from around the world.
To receive local support from your library or institution, click on your institution or organization in the Partners list and click “Contact” on the institutional collection page. Alternatively, request support through the “Support” link in the main navigation of the platform, which will send a message to all local support administrators from each participating institution.
For technical questions or information about subscribing to the service, use the Contact form to contact the Borealis team.
The User Guide provides additional information around the repository features. An Administrator Guide is in development.