Canada revises research classification to include Indigenous Knowledge Systems

KUALA LUMPUR, 25 JULY 2026 —

Statistics Canada will release the Canadian Research and Development Classification 2026 Version 1.0 in December, marking the first structural update to the framework since 2020.

The revision adds a new top-level division for Indigenous Knowledge Systems and refines 109 categories across the classification’s three pillars: Type of Activity, Fields of Research, and Socioeconomic Objectives. The changes follow 18 months of consultations with universities, funding councils, and research groups, according to the agency.

Fields of Research, the most granular pillar, absorbs 41 of the revisions. The Social Sciences division gains eight new subclasses, while Humanities and the Arts sees 20 new entries and 77 wording changes. Nuclear engineering moves from a subclass to a standalone class under Engineering and Technology, accompanied by three new subclasses: Nuclear Plant Design, Systems, and Operations; Nuclear Reactor Heat Transport; and Fusion Reactors.

Applied immunology is broadened to “Applied immunology (including immune-based therapies)” to cover the surge in cellular and gene treatments.

The new division Indigenous Knowledge Systems (coded RDF70) becomes the seventh top-level category, giving formal statistical recognition to work long tracked under Western rubrics. “Research grounded in Indigenous Knowledge Systems is consistent with the CRDC framework and deserves explicit representation within it,” the classification task team said. At this stage the division will have no subcategories, with coding guidance to be provided in the documentation.

Socioeconomic Objectives, used by funders to show where taxpayer money is directed, receive only terminology updates. “Older adults” replaces “aged persons” in the English version, while subclass RDS10701 is renamed “Human pharmaceutical treatments, including biologics, cell and gene therapies.” The illustrative examples under subclass RDS111 “Political and social systems, structures, and processes” are expanded to include “anti-racism.”

Not every proposal was adopted. A push to recognize translational research was shelved because it would require rewriting the OECD Frascati Manual definition of R&D, an international standard maintained by the OECD. Similarly, Technology Readiness Levels and regulatory science fall outside the manual’s scope and cannot be added. Black Studies remains in “Other social sciences, n.e.c.” after reviewers could not agree on a parent class that would avoid structural inconsistencies.

The changes follow the six-year revision cycle set out in the CRDC governance rules maintained by Statistics Canada and Canada’s four federal research councils: the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. A correspondence table will map old codes to new ones so institutions can update legacy datasets without breaking historical series.

Research institutions and funding agencies have until December to incorporate the new codes into grant applications and internal reporting systems. Statistics Canada plans a technical supplement on coding interdisciplinary projects and will convene a webinar in September to walk users through the shifts.