Today’s successful researcher, regardless of discipline, needs a robust, comprehensive and integrated digital environment to support the computing, connectivity and data requirements essential to his/her research. Canada has been investing in digital infrastructure for many years and has made impressive progress on a number of the key elements, but our current model has some serious problems, including the following.

• Organizational responsibility and funding are fragmented in multiple places.
• The focus is unbalanced between equipment and operations.
• There is little attention to data.
• There is a significant policy gap.

The problems in our current model prevent researchers from using our digital infrastructure ecosystem effectively and efficiently.  Canada is falling behind other industrialized nations who have taken a more holistic approach to digital infrastructure and this is impacting the ability of our researchers to be competitive. We can and must do better.

This talk will review the current state of our national digital infrastructure ecosystem and the parties responsible for providing its various elements.  It will look at the problems our current model presents and the state of play in other countries. Finally, it will conclude by looking at what’s being done on the national level towards developing a new approach.