Steering Group Terms of Reference
24 February 2014
The ICAT Steering Committee provides a forum for representatives of the stakeholders in ICAT to steer and advise on the priorities and the direction of the ICAT suite of data management components (referred to as ICAT). ICAT developers already meet regularly to discuss current progress, under the coordination of the Project manager of the ICAT project. However, as an open-source collaboration, it requires oversight and guidance from all senior members of stakeholder organisations involved to ensure that it continues to develop as a valuable component for data management within facilities infrastructure. The Steering Committee will meet more infrequently to undertake this role.
Purpose
The Committee exists for the following reasons:
- to advise on the likely usage and requirements for ICAT;
- to provide senior management oversight for the work of the ICAT collaboration partners;
- to provide strategic guidance on the development and deployment of ICAT.
Responsibilities of the ICAT Steering Committee
The members of the Committee have the following responsibilities:
- to provide strategic advice to the collaboration;
- to protect the interests of the institution which they represent;
- to advise on new initiatives and plans which may affect the development of ICAT;
- to advise on major requirements which may affect the development of ICAT;
- to oversee the ICAT development roadmap, including the incorporation of additional components into ICAT which have been proposed by developers or users;
- to ensure that ICAT components continue to remain aligned to the aims of the stakeholders, within a common functionality and code base;
- to advise on ownership, licencing of components and commercialisation opportunities;
- to ensure that the institution which they represent provides appropriate resources to the collaboration.
Membership
The Committee has one representative from each the major stakeholders who are actively involved in developing, deploying and exploiting ICAT. The Committee will regularly review membership to ensure that it remains representative of the active users of ICAT, and invite new members as appropriate.
The Project Manager of the ICAT Project should attend meetings in a non-voting capacity.
The Committee has the following resources:
- a Chairperson elected from its members;
- a Secretary provided by STFC Scientific Computing.
Chairperson
The Chairperson has the following responsibilities:
- to call the meetings of the Committee;
- to set the agenda for the meetings;
- to chair the meetings;
- to direct the Secretary between Committee meetings;
- to resolve conflicts of interest which may arise among the parties in the collaboration;
- to review the membership of the Committee annually, and invite new members.
Secretary
The Secretary has the following responsibilities:
- to deal with the administrative needs of the Committee;
- to arrange the meetings of the Committee;
- to maintain and publish the minutes of the meetings.
Meetings
The Committee will meet as required, but at least once per annum, via teleconference or in person. Proposals of agenda items can be sent to the Secretary.
Current Membership
Proposed Membership as of 24/2/14 constitutes:
- a representative of ISIS;
- a representative of DLS;
- a representative of CLF;
- a representative of SNS;
- a representative of Scientific Computing at STFC;
- a representative of ILL;
- a representative of ESRF;
- a representative of ELETTRA;
- a representative of the PanData consortium;