Currently the ISB have two types of subcommittees:
- Mostly composed of ISB EC members (EC subcommittees)
- IT Infrastructure
- Training, Outreach and Communication
- Awards Committee
- Travel/Exchange Fellowship Committee
- Mostly run by biocurators with ISC EC representation (ISB affiliated committees)
- Conference coordination committee
- Equality and diversity committee
- New Committee: Community curation – yet to be established
The ISB will provide a webpage dedicated to the affiliated committee and promote the activities and membership to the affiliated committee on the ISB website and other via media.
The EC subcommittees were established in recognition of the number of different activities that are being undertaken by the ISB EC and to reduce the time EC members spent in meetings.
Decisions made at these meetings need to be reported back to the monthly EC meetings, to give the rest of the EC an opportunity to agree to the decision before it is implemented and minuted. When there is an imminent deadline the subcommittee can make the decision but this must be reported to the EC and the action included in the minutes.
The ISB affiliated committees run independently of the EC, but each of these are required to have an active EC member involved. The nominated EC member is required to report back to the monthly EC meetings, to ensure that the committee is committing to activities that are in line with the ISB aims: to promote the field of biocuration and provide a forum for information exchange through meetings and workshops. If EC disagrees with any activities that the ISB affiliated committees are undertaking, or proposing, because they fall outside of the ISB aims, the EC will instruct the ISB affiliated committee to cease/modify that activity. If the ISB affiliated committee does not comply with the EC recommendations, then the ISB will remove the ISB umbrella from the ISB affiliated committee.
Each subcommittee or ISB affiliated committee can request funding to support specific activities/events/items. Specific costs should be provided.
EC subcommittee activities/events/items funded by the ISB will be managed by the EC subcommittee – with reports to the EC as above.
ISB funding to the ISB affiliated committees will be considered as a ‘small grant’ and the ISB affiliated committee will be responsible for the management of the activity/event/item. In addition, it will be the responsibility of the ISB affiliated committee to provide evidence of expenditure, as well as a summary of the activity/event/item that can be included in the ISB quarterly newsletter and on the ISB website – ideally with an image to accompany the summary.