UPDATE:
Thanks so much to everyone who has sent in nominations for the ORCID Board. To accommodate these unusual times, we are extending the deadline to August 15.
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I’m pleased to announce the start of this year’s search for dynamic and enthusiastic individuals from across the research community to join the ORCID Board. The ORCID Board fulfills a very important role in the organization’s governance by providing strategic guidance and oversight for the successful achievement of ORCID’s mission. More information is available in the ORCID Board Charter (PDF).
Every year, the ORCID Board nominations process gives the ORCID membership a direct voice in the organization’s governance. The Board’s composition and annual elections are an important part of ORCID’s charter, and the election process is a fantastic opportunity to ensure that ORCID grows and develops in close partnership with its members. This year, we have a larger than usual number of current Directors transitioning off the board due to term limits and retirement, so we are looking to fill up to seven board seats.
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:
- Salvatore Mele, CERN (CH)
- Andrew Preston, Clarivate Analytics (UK)
- Wen-Yau Cathy Lin, Tamkang University (TW)
- Mohammed Baessa, KAUST (SA)
- Karin Wulf, William & Mary University (US)
The role of the Nominating Committee is to select a ‘slate’ of candidates that is balanced and diverse, taking into account different sectors, regions, and skills, as well as the ORCID bylaws requirement that a majority of Board seats be reserved for not-for-profit organizations. We seek to ensure the Board is representative of our community’s diversity. New Board Directors should ideally offer perspectives and skills complementary to those of Board Directors who will be continuing to serve next year.
Board Directors must be from current ORCID member organizations, all of which are eligible to nominate representatives to serve on the Board. In addition, ORCID reserves two Board seats for researchers, irrespective of their affiliation. New Board Directors will serve for a period of three years, starting from January 1st, 2021 (the first Board meeting will be in February 2021). They are expected to attend each of three annual Board meetings and to play an active role in ORCID activities during the course of their term. Through 2019, these meetings were in person—across Europe, North America, and occasionally Asia. In 2020, due to the current health situation, definitely one—and probably two—of the Board meetings will be virtual. In the current uncertainty, no decision can yet be made for 2021 and beyond. It’s possible that more meetings will be virtual, but to the extent possible, a majority of meetings will be in person.
To help achieve our goal of broad representation across sectors and regions, last year we introduced a Board Meeting Attendance Fund to reduce financial barriers to participation in Board governance. For more information about ORCID governance, please see the Board Charter. Annual reports and other governance information is available on our Governance web pages.
Please nominate yourself or encourage colleagues to nominate themselves to stand for election to the ORCID board using the ORCID Board Nominations Form. You can nominate yourself or (with their permission) another individual. Please be sure to tell us what strengths you would bring to the Board and why you’re interested in serving. We are looking for people with a broad range of skills and experience—including those who work in organizations which support research/researcher workflows, disciplinary associations, university research services, or research technology/profile platform providers—and have experience with the following areas:
- Risk management, with legal, privacy, and/or IT focus
- Finance and business modeling
- Marketing and communications
- Governance or board service with other organizations
In light of ORCID’s global footprint and departing Board Directors, we will particularly welcome applications from the Americas.
More information about what we are looking for is available on the ORCID Board Nominations Form.
We will consider all recommendations received by August 15, 2020.
The slate will be presented to the current Board for approval at our September meeting, after which it will be announced publicly. The community has the choice of either voting on 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 members must submit a nomination in writing to ORCID before October 29, 2020. 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 October 29.
The full process is summarized below:
ORCID Board 2021 Election Key Dates
| Date | Activity |
| May 8, 2020 | Call for Board member recommendations |
| August 15, 2020 | Closing date for Board recommendations |
| September 22, 2020 | Nominating Committee presents slate for Board approval |
| September 29, 2020 | Slate made public |
| October 28, 2020 | Closing date for alternative nominations |
| October 29, 2020 | Voting opens |
| November 30, 2020 | Voting closes, results announced at virtual Member meeting |
| January 1, 2021 | Elected members start their term |
| February 11-12, 2021 | Board meeting, (provisionally in) London (UK) |
We look forward to receiving your recommendations over the coming months.
On a personal note, I have served on the ORCID board for many years and can highly recommend it. It is a very rewarding experience both personally and professionally. Fellow Board Directors and the ORCID staff are great people to work with and learn from, and helping ORCID grow, thrive, and achieve its mission is a worthy undertaking. I encourage people to consider nominating themselves or encourage a colleague or someone you think would be a good Director to nominate themselves.
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 now August 15, 2020.