This research project was an Open Data pilot based on case studies with seven IDRC grantees who developed and implemented open data management and sharing plans. The case studies examined the scale of legal, ethical and technical challenges that limited the sharing of data from IDRC projects including issues of:

* Privacy, personally identifiable information and protection of human subject
* Protection of intellectual property generated from projects or potential for financial risks for projects or institutions
* Challenges in the local legal environment, including ownership of data
* Ethical issues in releasing or sharing of indigenous and community knowledge, and the relationship between project participants and investigators particularly in the context of historical expropriation of resources
* Local and global issues of capacity and expertise in the management and sharing of data

The project ran over (15) months, commencing December 2015 and ending in February 2017. The project involved a literature review and series of interviews on funder data sharing policies, the seven case studies including data management plans and implementation, and a final summary report. The results of the project aim to refine guidelines for the implementation of development research funders’ open research data policies and data policies more generally.