About The NextGen Database

We have built an online, searchable database to help identify potential new collaborators (and collaborations) for Next Generation. The database also allows the media, students, policy-makers, and the general public to identify Canadian experts. The Nextgen database is part of the Next Generation – Collaboration for Development program, a partnership between Cooperation Canada and the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID).

Next Generation aims to position Canada as a leader in innovative, multi-stakeholder international development and humanitarian research, practice and policy development. The goal is to encourage better collaborations between civil society and academia, and strengthen the Canadian ecosystem of research and knowledge sharing.
To facilitate collaborations, we need a better sense of who the different groups and individuals in this ecosystem are – both within and beyond Cooperation Canada-CASID respective memberships. That is where this database comes in.

The database includes Canadian researchers from universities, colleges, institutes, think-tanks and civil society organizations working on global sustainable development issues including international development and humanitarian assistance, but also on domestic issues related to the SDGs.

This community is large. To keep the process manageable during the first phase, we have developed the database in three steps, identifying primary, secondary and tertiary targets.

Our primary targets (January – April 2017) are the 22 institutional members of the Canadian Consortium of University Programs in International Development Studies (CCUPIDS) and "practitioner-researchers". The latter are people who work for civil society organizations focused on international development and humanitarian assistance, and are involved in academic-practitioner collaborations or research that shapes and informs policy and programmatic development.

Our secondary targets (May – September) include universities, colleges and think tanks not captured in the first round that are focused on international development, humanitarian assistance and global cooperation.

Our tertiary targets (September and beyond) encompass all CASID and Cooperation Canada members and related academic disciplines (political science, economics, etc.) and geographical associations (Africa, Asia, etc.) that may want to be part of the database. In this phase, individuals will create their own profiles.

We have used the first phase of data collection to develop and fine tune the vocabularies for each category (sectoral focus, geographic focus, demographic focus, development actors, research methodology types). These vocabularies will change as the database grows.

An SDG lens to the NextGen Database!

In our second phase (2019), NextGen teamed up with the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Canada to link research in Canada to relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by mapping areas of research around the SDGs/ Agenda 2030. NextGen mapped areas of research to the SDGs agenda to identify how researchers in Canada contribute to the implementation and understanding of the SDGs.

Given the universality of Agenda 2030, the NextGen Database expanded its mandate to include researchers beyond the international development and humanitarian fields. It now includes researchers working on domestic issues related to SDGs.

The NextGen Database also increased its number of profiles by 35%.

We do not expect the database to be exhaustive. But the ability for individuals to create and update their profiles through a single-profile editor feature will make the database comprehensive, current and sustainable.

Global Affairs Canada - List of Thematic and Sector Specialists (January 2019)