IRC
Executive Committee
Composition
The IRC Executive Committee is composed of one representative per funding body (including public funding bodies, charities and the animal health industry), or group of funders, OIE, the Chair of the Scientific Committee and the STAR-IDAZ Chairperson.
These individuals are nominated and appointed according to the following principals:
• Individual STAR-IDAZ IRC Programme Owners/Funding Bodies
To be considered as a member of the STAR-IDAZ IRC the programme owner/funding body, whether a member of STAR-IDAZ or not, should commit a minimum of $10 million over 5 years for future funding of research projects/programmes contributing towards STAR-IDAZ IRC objectives. Each funding body can nominate one representative to the Executive Committee. Previous investments since 1 January 2015 contributing to STAR-IDAZ IRC objectives should be disclosed to help enable networking of presently active research teams. In the interest of keeping the size of the Executive Committee manageable, countries with more than one committed programme owner/funding body may consider designating a single common representative. All membership requests must be sent in writing to the Chair of the Executive Committee, for approval by the Executive Committee.
• Groups of STAR-IDAZ Programme Owners/Funding bodies
Programme owners or funding organizations that would like to contribute to STAR-IDAZ IRC, but who cannot reach the minimum required investment for membership (such as public funders from a group of smaller countries in particular regions of the world) and/or provide funding for only a single priority disease/issue or a subgroup of priority diseases/issues, may form a group of funders that together reach the threshold for membership (i.e., $10 million US over a 5-year period). Each such group of funders can nominate one representative to the Executive Committee. Other configurations of group funders are also eligible.
• Stakeholders and representatives of advisory bodies
The Executive Committee may invite representatives of the livestock industries, animal health industry associations and other relevant international organisations to participate as non-voting members. These organisations should represent broad industry interests and geographical areas. Upon proposal from a member, the Executive Committee can decide to invite other observers to its meetings or representatives of organisations that may be given an advisory role such as regulatory bodies. Such invitations shall be done by the Chair in consultation with the members of the Executive Committee.
Mandate
The STAR-IDAZ IRC Executive Committee:
• Agrees and adopts STAR-IDAZ IRC Governance, Policies and Guidelines, including decisions on the creation or closure of Working Groups
• Coordinates research funding strategies to address identified research priorities such as those identified by the Scientific Committee
• Advocacy – promotes support for STAR-IDAZ IRC objectives from the livestock and animal health industries and services and the wider donor community.
• Monitors progress and provides updates to funding bodies.
• Reviews nominations and accepts new members to the Scientific Committee
• Agrees on a Communication Strategy that ensures timely and correct dissemination regarding STAR-IDAZ IRC objectives and progress made
• Provides a forum for the resolution of any conflicts, should they arise.
Members of the Executive Committee may participate in meetings of any Working Group.
Scientific Committee
Composition
The Scientific Committee is composed of approximately 15 members with a balanced expertise and representation from academia, livestock and animal health industry, and risk assessment and regulatory bodies.
Scientific Committee members are appointed by the Executive Committee from a list of candidates nominated by:
• Funding bodies represented in the Executive Committee
• Industry organisations representing the livestock and animal health industries.
Mandate
The Scientific Committee:
• Considers the scientific merit of proposals from the Executive Committee and their possible implementation
• Acts as a scientific coordinating body
• Proposes research priorities for consideration by the Executive Committee (priorities assessment)
• Proposes policies and guidelines for adoption by the Executive Committee
• Identifies need for and proposes establishment of new Working Groups, or the closing of existing Working Groups
• Defines the missions of the Working Groups
• Supports Working Groups in organising gap analysis and research prioritisation activities in liaison with the IRC Secretariat.
• Assesses and reports to the Executive Committee on progress made by the Working Groups (i.e., projects funded)
• Addresses arising issues of a scientific nature
• Organises the scientific programme of STAR-IDAZ IRC conferences as they occur
• Encourages exchange of protocols and best practices, and agree on standard operating procedures, good research practice, roadmap to reach STAR-IDAZ IRC goals in their scientific area
• Promotes interactions between Workings Groups
Working Groups
Composition
The working groups are composed of experts within the scientific domain of the working group, including representatives from funded projects that contribute to STAR-IDAZ IRC, additional experts and representatives of livestock industries and other stakeholders that are nominated by the Executive Committee or the Scientific Committee. Composition of the working groups should have a geographically balanced representation.
Mandate
The Working Groups:
• Map and report on major ongoing national, regional or international initiatives in its field of interest to maximize worldwide awareness of these projects.
• Point out the problems and difficulties in the scope of the WG that ultimately prevent or delay the development of new diagnostics, vaccines/therapies and/or key information/tools for risk analysis and disease control strategies (gap analysis)
• Recommend prioritised research objectives, actions or solutions to resolve gaps, problems and difficulties in the scope of the WG
• Cooperate to ensure synergies of all research projects within the scientific area of the working group, by exchanging results, expertise, experiences and information
• Agree on good research practice to be adopted (e.g. standard operational procedures, performance indicators) for animal health research
• Promote scientific excellence and enabling environment, including human resource development and capacity building
• Liaise with other working groups as appropriate
• Adopt and report back on the implementation of STAR-IDAZ IRC policies and guidelines in animal health research projects and propose changes where necessary
• Report to the Scientific Committee at least twice a year
• Working groups may organise in collaboration with the IRC secretariat, scientific conferences in their domain
Secretariat for the International Research Consortium on Animal Health (SIRCAH)
Mandate
The mandate of the IRC secretariat is to provide organisational and communication support to STAR-IDAZ IRC and its various members and thereby contribute to the IRC policies and guidelines aimed at coordinating research at international level to contribute to new and improved animal health strategies
It supports the work of the STAR-IDAZ IRC by:
• Organizing meetings of the STAR-IDAZ IRC Executive Committee, Scientific Committee and working groups
• Maintaining the STAR-IDAZ website and databases and keeping all members updated
• Assuring secretarial work for STAR-IDAZ IRC
• Assisting the Scientific Committee and Working Groups in organising research gap analysis meetings and running periodic foresight exercises
• Conducting, upon request, the preparation of any document necessary to the STAR-IDAZ IRC committees and working groups, such as assisting bibliographic searches or literature reviews
• Collecting and diffusing pertinent information and results to the researchers funded by STAR-IDAZ IRC members
• Disseminating results of STAR-IDAZ IRC projects with different means of communication: website, newsletters, communication materials, conferences.