Nominations now open for ORCID Board Elections 2023!

Nominations now open for ORCID Board Elections 2023!

I’m pleased to announce that nominations for ORCID’s Board of Directors are now open. As a community-built organization, ORCID is governed by a Board that is representative of its membership and wider community stakeholders. The ORCID Board fulfills an important role in the organization’s governance by providing strategic guidance and oversight for the successful achievement of ORCID’s mission. Our Board members are elected for three-year terms on a staggered schedule, so every year, we hold elections to appoint new members to the Board. More information is available in the ORCID Board Charter.

This is your opportunity to participate in ORCID’s governance and we are asking for your help. 

Nominating Committee & Elections Process

The ORCID Board nominations process gives ORCID members a direct voice in the organization’s direction and priorities. Our annual elections are an important part of ORCID’s committment to open and transparent stakeholder governance, and the election process ensures that ORCID grows and develops in close partnership with its members. 

All ORCID member organizations are eligible to nominate a Member Representative Director to stand for election to the Board. In addition, two Researcher Director seats are reserved for practicing scholars, irrespective of their affiliation. This year, we are looking to fill up to four board seats, one of which may be a researcher seat.

As this year’s Chair of the Nominating Committee, I look forward to working closely with the other Committee members who represent the diversity of ORCID membership:

• Linda O’Brien, Griffith University, Australia, (Board Member)
• Amal Amin Ibrahim, National Research Center, Egypt (Board Member)
• Calvin Johnson, NIH, USA (Board Member)
• Daisy Selematsela, UNISA, South Africa (Board Member)
• Patricia Brennan, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, USA (External Committee Member)
• Salvatore Mele, CERN, Switzerland (External Committee Member)
• Andrew Stammer, CSIRO Publishing, Australia (External Committee Member)

The role of the Nominating Committee is to select a ‘slate’ of candidates that is balanced and diverse, ensuring that all of the skills needed to govern the organization are present among Board members while ensuring that the many different sectors and regions that make up ORCID’s community are represented and that the ORCID bylaw requirement that a majority of Board seats be occupied by not-for-profit organizations is met.

For more information about ORCID governance, please see the Board Charter. Annual reports and other governance information is available on our Governance web page.

Qualifications and expectations

Supported by the Executive Director and a full-time professional staff, the ORCID Board is responsible for:

• Developing and regularly updating ORCID’s strategic plan
• Reviewing high-level organizational goals and policies to support that plan
• Overseeing ORCID’s organizational and financial performance
• Ensuring ORCID has financial resources to achieve its mission
• Monitoring Board function
• Appointing the Executive Director and reviewing their performance 
• Serving as a community advocate for ORCID

If elected, new Board members will serve for a period of three years, starting 1 January 2023. Board Directors expected to attend all board meetings — currently there are four meetings a year, three virtual, and one in person — and to play an active role in ORCID activities during the course of their term.

To help achieve our goal of broad representation across sectors and regions, a Board Meeting Attendance Fund is available to reduce financial barriers to participation in Board meetings. Note that ORCID Board members serve as uncompensated volunteers, and Board meetings are conducted in English.

Member Representative Directors must be: employees, officers or directors of current ORCID member organizations. 

Researcher Directors must be: practicing scholars who are willing to act as advocates for ORCID in their communities. 

2023 Selection Criteria

Each year, our Board establishes criteria for the selection of new Board members in order to maintain the balance of skills necessary to govern the organization, and to ensure diverse representation from ORCID’s stakeholder communities. This year, in seeking perspectives and skills complementary to those of continuing Board members, the Nominating Committee will be specifically looking for candidates who meet at least one of the following:

• Are based in the European Union or Asia-Pacific regions
• Are skilled in the areas of finance and/or technology
• Work in commercial organizations especially in the Publishing and Service Provider sectors (Member Representative seats)
• Can advocate on behalf of ORCID in their communities and have experience or a keen interest in organizational governance (Researcher Seats)

How to Apply

Please nominate yourself,  encourage a colleague to apply, or nominate another individual (with their permission), using our nominations forms for:

• Member Representative Director
• Researcher Director

Please be sure to tell us what strengths you would bring to the Board and why you’re interested in serving. 

Key Dates

We will consider all nominations received by 18 July 2022. The slate will be presented to the current Board for approval at their September meeting, after which it will be announced publicly. Our voting members then have the choice of either voting for the slate or proposing additional candidates (within 30 days of the slate being announced), in which case the election will become a plurality vote by candidate. To propose additional candidates, a group of 20 or more member organizations must submit a nomination in writing to ORCID before 28 October 2022. Note that the group may not include more than one member per consortium (for specific details, see Article III, Section 2b of ORCID’s Bylaws). We will send notifications and open the election by electronic ballot on 1 November 2022.

ORCID Board 2022 Election Key Dates

We look forward to receiving your nominations over the coming months.

If you are thinking about nominating yourself but aren’t sure or have questions, please get in touch at [email protected]. Remember, the deadline for nominations is 18 July 2022.