Fellowship Evaluation Committee (FEC)

Responsibility

The Fellowship Evaluation Committee is responsible for evaluating and nominating candidates for the DDSA Fellowships for final approval by the BoD.

Composition and appointment

• The committee comprises a national chair, five national members, and six international members. The rationale for having twelve members is that the diverse areas and sub-disciplines of data science are adequately represented.
• Having 50% international members will ensure international outlook and mitigate any potential conflicts of interest among the national members
• Members will be appointed by the BoD initially for 2.5 years. After 2.5 years, new members are appointed for 3 years by the BoD via a community-driven nomination process. Members can be reelected for another term but no more than 50% of the committee can be re-appointed, and members can only serve for two consecutive terms.
• If a member resigns before the end of their term, a new member will be appointed by the BoD.
• The members will be selected based on their field of expertise and general level of experience in serving on evaluation committees to ensure that the committee covers the diversity of the field.
• FEC members will receive an honorarium that will scale with the number of applications evaluated, and whether the panel member will interview candidates (international members & Chair).

Role of the Chair

• The FEC Chair ensures strategic coordination between the different steps of the application process
• The FEC Chair monitors the Travel and Visit Fellowships program which runs via the secretariat
• The FEC Chair can join DDSA BoD meetings as a non-voting member
• The FEC Chair contributes to the annual report
• The FEC Chair, together with the secretariat, monitors the applicant statistics and makes strategic recommendations to the BoD on how the programme can be improved (i.e. to promote diversity)
• The FEC Chair ensures adherence to the DDSA’s code of conduct

FEC members

Three of the national members have already accepted to serve on the committee for their first term. The remaining nine members will be appointed after the launch of the DDSA via a community nomination process.