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Call for Nominations and Applications: Chair, CODATA International Data Policy Committee – DEADLINE Monday 17 January 2022

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Happy New Year!

CODATA would like to remind you of this Call for Nominations or Applications.  The deadline falls in one week’s time: Monday 17 January.  Please distribute this call widely through your networks and send it to any person that you think is well qualified and may be interested.

CODATA invites nominations and applications to become the Chair of the organization’s International Data Policy Committee for a 3-year term (renewable once by mutual consent), beginning 1 March 2022.  We will accept applications directly from the candidate or nominations from a candidate’s institution or endorsing organization.

Applications or nominations can be made through the form here or by sending the attached Word document to info@codata.org 

The deadline for applications is 23:59 UTC on Monday, 17 January 2022.

About CODATA

CODATA’s mission is to connect data and people to advance science and improve our world.  As the Committee on Data of the International Science Council (ISC), CODATA helps realise ISC’s vision of advancing science as a global public good.  CODATA does this by promoting international collaboration to advance Open Science and to improve the availability and usability of data for all areas of research.  CODATA supports the principle that data produced by research and susceptible to be used for research should be as open as possible and as closed as necessary.  CODATA works also to advance the interoperability and the usability of such data: research data should be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).

CODATA’s strategic activities are divided into four priority areas:

  1. Decadal Programme ‘Making Data Work for Cross-Domain Grand Challenges’ and the Global Open Science Cloud initiative;
  2. Data Policy: promoting principles, policies and practices for FAIR Data and Open Science;
  3. Data Science: advancing the frontiers of the science of data;
  4. Data Skills: building capacity for Open Science by improving data skills and the functions of national science systems needed to support open data.

About the CODATA International Data Policy Committee (IDPC)

The CODATA International Data Policy Committee (IDPC) is the key instrument by which CODATA pursues its mission of promoting effective and appropriate policies for Open Science and FAIR data. A subsidiary task is to support the other strategic objectives of CODATA. 

IDPC Mission

The CODATA International Data Policy Committee is an international expert body that:

IDPC Activities

There are generally three types of activities in which the IDPC engages:

  1. Policy support of CODATA initiatives and programs. IDPC members can be individually or collectively involved in engaging with CODATA activities, projects, Task Groups etc. on data policy issues. This can include supporting the data policy activities of CODATA Strategic Initiatives and Task Groups. The Decadal Programme ‘Making Data Work for Cross-Domain Grand Challenges and the Global Open Science Cloud (GOSC) initiative both have data policy related activities, as do some CODATA Task Groups.
  2. External requests for advice or projects. CODATA is frequently contacted by other organizations in relation to data policy issues. These approaches generally ask for advice, comment or even endorsement of policy statements and documents. CODATA generally calls on the IDPC’s expertise to respond to such issues. Additionally, there have been in recent years a series of externally generated and funded reviews and reports that CODATA has been asked to undertake. The IDPC membership often acts as a source of expertise for such work.
  3. IDPC-generated projects. IDPC members bring forward policy-related issues for consideration by the Committee. A recent activity that fits in this category was the High-level International Meeting on Open Research Data Policy and Practice held in September 2019 and the resulting Beijing Declaration.

Current IDPC Projects and Sub-Groups

In 2021, the IDPC underwent a process of reflection and preparing new areas of activity. Current areas of interest for the IDPC include the following:

  • Framework for Data Diplomacy
  • Data Rights and Responsibilities
  • Data Policy Training
  • Sensitive Data Sharing Policy

Additionally, the IDPC will engage with the Policy and Legal Working Group as part of the GOSC initiative and a new CODATA Working Group on Data Ethics.

Role of the IDPC Chair

The IDPC Chair coordinates activities with Dr. Simon Hodson, the Executive Director of CODATA, and reports directly to the CODATA Executive Committee. The successful candidate will be expected to work in the general areas outlined above and perform the following tasks, among others:

  • Act as the primary manager of the Committee and develop a strategy for action.
  • Carry out projects, with the IDPC members and others, and consistent with the areas outlined above. Projects may include: organizing workshops or side-events at meetings or conference sessions (virtual and in-person when possible), lead the drafting of reports and other germane documents, communicate and establish productive relationships with experts in other organizations working on data policy issues, and undertake other activities as deemed appropriate. 
  • Hold regular (about monthly) conference calls with the IDPC members to discuss projects and issues. This will involve preparations before the Committee call and a summary of actions after. The CODATA Secretariat assists with and supports the calls: Asha Law schedules the calls and assists with logistics; Simon Hodson participates in the calls, if available.
  • Hold face-to-face meetings of the IDPC at conferences or events that are attended by a substantial subset of Committee members. 
  • Select the membership of the IDPC, in consultation with Simon Hodson and the CODATA Executive Committee.

CODATA generally allocates a budget of 4-5K euros to support the activities of the International Data Policy Committee.  In pre-pandemic times, this has been used to assist with the arrangement of workshops, travel, early career interns, publication costs and similar.  The use of this resource is agreed in consultation with the CODATA Executive Director.

The outgoing IDPC Chair, Mark Leggott, allocated c.10% or 3-4 hours per week to this role. As is often the case for such senior volunteer activities, the employer of a successful candidate should allow this time (0.1 FTE) as part of his or her activities. Mark will be available to continue as a member or advisor to the Committee at the new Chair’s discretion, and will answer any questions that the new Chair may have.