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Steps:
If you are unsure about any part of the application process you can contact your local RDC analyst or Grant Gibson (Assistant Director Research & Evaluation, CRDCN) for help. If your planned research will be conducted on behalf of a government department please see the “government” tab.
RDC access is available as part of a suite of offerings through Statistics Canada’s Data Access Division (DAD). Before you begin the process of applying for access to confidential microdata, you should ensure that no other Statistics Canada data sources are suitable for your research. These include Statistics Canada’s public use files, real-time remote access program, and custom tabulations. Custom tabulations are available by contacting the appropriate subject matter division at Statistics Canada. More information on these offerings is available here.
The project proposal provides a detailed outline of the data file(s) you are requesting and your analysis plan. Please download the Project proposal template.
Tenured faculty at the associate professor (or equivalent) level do not need to obtain peer review.
Proposals from post-doctoral fellows, research associates, and assistant professors (or their equivalents) to access microdata need to be peer reviewed by a researcher who is a tenured associate professor. The reviewer does not have to be from the same institution as the applicant. Note that research proposals may be exempted from peer review if already supported by a prior external peer review (most often through an external grant application process).
The peer review form can be found here.
Most of our researchers are able to access the data without a fee. However, it is necessary to complete a fee-for-service questionnaire. Researchers whose universities are not one of the affiliated universities in the CRDCN may incur fees to access the RDC. More information can be found in the CRDCN Access and Fee-for-service Policy.
Once your proposal is approved by Statistics Canada, you must pass a security clearance check required by the Treasury Board. If you already have a security clearance, it remains valid for 10 years and does not need to be renewed for every new project you undertake in the RDC.
If a researcher has not been on an active contract for more than one year (“break in service”), the researcher is required to renew their security clearance.