Terms of Reference for Standards Committees

Mandate

The mandate of a CASRAI Standards Committee is to govern and oversee successive and scheduled iterations of that aspect of the overall portfolio of data standards for which they have responsibility. In executing this mandate for the standards under their responsibility, committees will:

• Include community best practices and implemented models in early reference drafts;
• Identify and/or confirm the information that needs to be included and specify the semantics and
  structure of that information;
• Determine and follow a suitable time-table for published revisions;
• Consult with and consider the perspectives of the applicable Review Circles in the standards development and refinement process;
• Report to the Board on committee progress.

Participation

CASRAI Standards Committees comprise subject matter experts selected from each member organization with committee privileges. Individuals are selected for their substance knowledge of how the applicable research administration information is supplied and used in a business environment and hence the process issues that must be considered. Individuals bring to the table their knowledge of their respective organizations but also their capacity to reflect perspectives of the larger stakeholder community not directly represented on the committee. Individuals must be from the applicable business units of member organizations and not from the information technology (IT) units. CASRAI has an alternate inclusion mechanism for those responsible for implementing the standards in IT solutions.

Committees may, at their discretion, invite non-voting external experts that meet the above criteria but that are not from a CASRAI member organization.

Chairs

To reflect a key CASRAI principle of balanced stakeholder representation a standards committee will be co-chaired by one individual representing a research funder and one individual representing a research institution.

Roles and Responsibilities

CASRAI committee members will:

• Offer knowledge and content expertise related to the committee mandate;
• Actively participate in committee work;
• Meet and respect target dates and deadlines;
• Follow CASRAI procedures and respect CASRAI principles;
• Consult within their respective organizations but focus appropriately and balance constituency views in accordance with CASRAI principles;
• Contribute effectively and transparently within a group environment whose outputs are public;
• Communicate the CASRAI mandate and the work of the committee within their respective organizations and networks.

CASRAI staff will:

• Provide committees with support and orientation on the standards development process;
• Provide opportunities for individuals to bring to the committee their subject area expertise, knowledge, needs and interests;
• Provide open and effective lines (and supporting collaborative tools) of communication for committee work;
• Support committees in the documentation and revision-control of their outputs;
• Supply information and documents to help members understand the policies and codes of conduct involved in their duties;
• Facilitate recruitment and acceptance of committee members from CASRAI organizational members;
• Publicly acknowledge the contributions of committees.