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Claire Austin

Disclaimer: All views and opinions expressed my own, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of my employer, or of any government, agency, or organization.

INTERESTS. Dr. Austin has published extensively in the peer-reviewed literature and at international conferences on environmental exposure and health. Her strong quantitative background has led her to develop a research interest in scientific data modernization, and institutional facilitators and barriers to integrating and implementing the principles of Open Data, Open Science, FAIRER data, and reproducible science and research within organizations.

LEADERSHIP. Claire has served in leadership positions in a wide range of national and international bodies. Past activities include: Co-chair (RDA-COVID19-Epidemiology sub-WG). Editor and Contributor (NIST Big Data Interoperability Framework, 3rd edition – Vol 9, Modernization and Adoption); Secretary (IEEE Big Data Governance and Metadata Management); co-Chair (RDA Assessment of Data Fitness for Use); Chair (CODATA IRiDiuM International Research Data Management glossary); co-Chair (RDC Standards & Interoperability Committee); Editorial Board member (Data Science Journal); technical advisor (ISO and NFPA); invited specialist (WHO/IARC carcinogenicity of smoke and firefighting expert panel); and, Discipline Committee member (Quebec Order of Chemists).

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATION. Dr. Austin received her PhD in 1997 from McGill University, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health. Claire has received the following certifications: Emergency measures planning (Canadian Emergency Measures Preparedness College, 2000), Certified Management Consultant (CMC, 2000), industrial hygienist (CIH, 1998), and professional chemist (Quebec, 1988). She holds a M.Ed. from the Université de Montréal, and a B.Mus. (performance). Claire is fully bilingual English/French).

AWARDS. Claire received a departmental 2020 Citation of Excellence award for 'Innovation and Guiding Change', and a 2012 Citation of Excellence award for 'Teamwork, Partnering and Collaboration' from Environment Canada, and has been nominated by her undergraduate and graduate students a number of times for teaching and excellence awards.

Working Group
Stage: WG Maintaining Deliverables
TAB Liaison: Isabelle PERSEIL
This is the subgroup of the RDA-COVID-19 working group focusing on Epidemiology. Co-chair assigned:  Priyanka Pillai Moderator(s):  Claire Austin, Rajini Nagrani, Moderator emeritus:  Gabri...
Interest Group
Stage: IG Established
Secretariat Liaison: Bridget Walker
TAB Liaison: Mohamed Drira
The proposed activity of this group is to act as a nucleus for discussing requirements for and identifying developments needed to support active (i.e. able to evolve and be monitored) data management ...
Maintenance Group
Stage: WG Maintaining Deliverables
TAB Liaison: Martina Stockhause
The Data Citation WG maintains the RDA Recommendation for Precise, Actionable Reference to Dynamic Data: Rauber, A., Parsons, M., & RDA Data Citation WG. (2025). Precise, Actionable Reference to D...
Interest Group
Stage: IG Established
Secretariat Liaison: Bridget Walker
TAB Liaison: Martina Stockhause
The Data Versioning WG has transitioned to the Data Versioning IG as of July 2021. The group space has remained the same.  The demand for reproducibility of research results and re-using data is gro...
Working Group
Stage: WG Maintaining Deliverables
Secretariat Liaison: Bridget Walker
TAB Liaison: Sara El-Gebali
In a nutshell This group produced a recommendation on machine-actionable DMPs. recommendation: https://doi.org/10.15497/rda00039 full documentation: https://github.com/RDA-DMP-Common/RDA-DMP-Common...
Interest Group
Stage: IG Established
Secretariat Liaison: Bridget Walker
TAB Liaison: Victoria Smith
RDA Domain Repositories Interest Group The Domain Repositories Interest Group will bring together active data repositories that serve specific scientific disciplines.  Domain repositories provide arc...
Interest Group
Stage: IG Established
Secretariat Liaison: Bridget Walker
TAB Liaison: Mingfang Wu
The context of increasing volumes of data being created by researchers and the strengthening of requirements for research data management and data sharing has created demand for a new and evolving set...
Working Group
The Exposing DMPs WG group is being retired. To participate in current RDA effort on Data Management Plans, please join the Active DMPs IG. Recommendations The Exposing DMPs draft recommendations res...
Working Group
Stage: WG Maintaining Deliverables
TAB Liaison: Louise Bezuidenhout
FAIR Data Maturity Model: core criteria to assess the implementation level of the FAIR data principles Webinar – The RDA FAIR Data Maturity Model WG: Aligning International Initiatives for Promo...
Interest Group
Stage: IG Established
TAB Liaison: Rossella Aversa
The Data Fabric IG (DFIG) identified that working with data in the many scientific labs and most probably also in other areas such as industry and governance is highly inefficient and too costly. Exce...