1. Home
2. Governance and Portfolio Management
3. Research Subcommittee Members

Research Subcommittee

Monthly Meeting Schedule:  Second Tuesday, 3:00pm - 4:00pm

Members

Purpose

The Research IT Governance committee provides a consistent, transparent process to propose, prioritize, evaluate, and communicate key research IT infrastructure. It is an established component of Emory University's IT governance process and meets on an ongoing basis. The committee provides direction on the portfolio of Research IT initiatives and future state architecture as well as facilitates opportunities for coordination across the Emory University environment. The committee consists primarily of researchers at Emory with additional membership extended to the information technology.

Authority

The committee reports into the University’s IT Steering Committee.

Scope

The committee's scope is focused on research IT infrastructure and services across Emory University, primarily its academic though there may be touchpoints with its healthcare components. The research IT infrastructure and services is defined as any central IT component utilized by multiple Emory research units for the design, conduct, analysis, or reporting of research.

IT infrastructure and services funded through external awards that would support Emory faculty or integrate with Emory research infrastructure fall within the scope of this committee. However, infrastructure or services designed and deployed solely at partner institutions is outside the committee’s scope.

Function

• Assisting in the establishment of priorities for key University-wide research information technology infrastructure or services, such as data acquisition, data management, research PACS, study management technologies, and University-wide research databases.
• Identifying opportunities to further the research IT whether it be gaps in current infrastructure or policies and procedures that should be amended.
• Assisting in establishing policies and requiring controls within the research IT offerings to assure compliance with Federal and local regulations.
• Ensuring interoperability and integration among key systems that may impact investigators or the conduct of research.
• Authorizing or requesting refinements on establishing University research IT platforms. Generally the detailed work will be accomplished through subcommittee work.
• Providing insight at key milestones of initiatives and strategic planning efforts.
• Assisting in the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Research IT systems.

Policies and Procedures

1. Meetings

   1. Meetings of the IT Research Governance shall be announced with adequate time for arrangements and preparation. Background material and a final agenda shall be circulated in advance.
   2. IT Research Governance meetings will nominally be scheduled for at least a 1-hour time slot on a monthly basis. The committee may change the frequency of the meetings.
   3. Recommendations will be documented and forwarded to the IT Research Governance chair(s). An action item log shall be maintained and reviewed at each meeting. Key decisions and next steps from each meeting shall be distributed to the members for comment and revision prior to becoming publicly available.

2. Decision Making

   1. Consensus is a core value of the IT Research Governance. To promote consensus, the IT Research Governance process requires the Chair(s) to ensure that the group considers all legitimate views, proposals, objections, and endeavors to reconcile them. When unanimity is not possible, the IT Research Governance strives to make decisions that are supported by the available evidence, and then to submit the issue to vote.
   2. Agendas will specify when a vote is scheduled, and supporting information will be circulated at least a week before a vote is to be taken, whether at a face-to-face meeting or by electronic means. This allows for absentee voting, which must be completed prior to the scheduled vote.
   3. As common practice, the committee will devote time on the agenda for discussion of a decision that will be voted on at a future meeting to ensure members have time to deliberate. In addition, materials will be posted and distributed on the committee's collaboration site for review. There may be times when urgent issues arise when the committee might not follow this practice.
   4. A simple majority vote from the group of voting members is required for a final IT Research Governance decision. IT Research Governance may reach decisions by face-to-face meeting, teleconference, electronic communication, or any combination of the above.
   5. There must be a quorum of at least 51% of the voting members present for a vote to be taken.

3. Membership

   1. The membership of the IT Research Governance shall consist of at least 7 but not more than 15 voting members.
   2. If the number of voting members falls below seven, the group is required to select additional members to reach the required seven.

4. Attendance

   1. Every member must make a concerted effort to attend all meetings (face to face meetings and teleconferences). If a member consistently misses meetings, such as greater than 1/3 of meetings, the committee may vote to remove that person's membership.
   2. Each IT Research Governance member may choose an alternate that could attend meetings if the member is unable to attend. The member in question is responsible to see that the alternate is informed of the present state of the IT Research Governance's business. Attendance by an alternate does not constitute attendance by the member. Alternates cannot cast votes for members.

5. Openness and Confidentiality

   1. The IT Research Governance publishes minutes of all its meetings. IT Research Governance meetings are open to outside attendance upon request. The Chairs may, upon informing the members, exclude invited participants, liaison, and ex-officio members from discussion due to the sensitive nature of the matter.