In December 2023, the RDA Council Nominations Committee issued a call for nominations for three open Council positions. In response to this call, four RDA members were deemed eligible for inclusion in the 2024 Council elections, to be voted by the RDA community. The Nominations Committee reviewed these submissions and are pleased to announce the eligible candidates to be put forward for community voting.
According to the RDA election procedures outlined in the RDA Governance Document all RDA members are eligible to vote for the set of candidates.
RDA members are asked to cast 3 votes, one for each of the 3 open Council positions. The three open positions are for a three-year term (2024-2027) with one candidate being sought from each of the geographical areas:
- “Europe and Africa”
- “The Americas”
- "Asia and Oceania"
Balancing criteria will be applied upon closure of the voting and the candidate(s) with the highest votes from the relevant geographical territory will be elected. Voting takes place through a formal election process that opens on Thursday 29 February 2024 (00:01 UTC) and ends Friday 22 March 2024 (23:59 UTC).
The newly elected candidates will join Council from Monday 1 April 2024. For more information on the role of the RDA Council, visit https://www.rd-alliance.org/about-rda/our-leadership/rda-council.html
RDA Council Candidates 2024 Elections
Maria Cruz (Europe & Africa)
Programme Leader, Open Research Software
Open Science NL (Dutch Research Council (NWO)), The Netherlands
Self-Nomination
I am the Programme Leader for Open Research Software at Open Science NL, part of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) - the main research funder in the Netherlands. As an active member and participant in the RDA community, I am deeply committed to the success of the RDA and its global efforts to enable the open sharing and re-use of data.
I have been a member of the RDA since May 2018. Around that time, I made a shift in my career to support research and researchers with open and FAIR data sharing. I have dedicated myself since then to advancing open science, understanding that it is the key to a healthy, collaborative, productive and effective research and innovation ecosystem. I believe that RDA provides a crucial platform to further this commitment on a global scale.
My current role as chair of the Science Europe Working Group on Open Science is an example of my experience of working successfully with a stakeholder community. This role requires me to collaborate closely with representatives from other Science Europe member organisations, the Science Europe office and its Governing Board. It also requires me to contribute good judgement, strategic thinking, shared responsibility, time and attention to the Working Group's discussions and initiatives. It would be a privilege and an honour to do the same for the RDA.
NWO has recently become a regional partner of the RDA, strengthening the links between the local Dutch community of data professionals and the global RDA community. In July 2023, NWO joined the Research Software Alliance (ReSA) as an organisational member. I am very proud of the role I played in helping to secure financial contributions from the Dutch Research Council to support the long-term sustainability of both the RDA and ReSA, which I consider to be two vitally important international communities.
I am excited about the opportunity to contribute to the RDA's impactful work and to further the organisation's vision and mission in promoting open science.
Formal Endorsements
Maria’s broad experience across the research ecosystem and inspiring leadership in helping researchers understand data management would make her a valuable asset to the Council. I support her nomination without reservation.
I am thoroughly convinced that Maria, with her unwavering values, determination, diverse experience, extensive expertise, and steadfast belief in the significance of the RDA, will undoubtedly be an invaluable asset to the RDA Council.
I wholeheartedly endorse Maria Cruz's nomination and believe that her expertise, dedication, and collaborative spirit will make a positive and lasting contribution to the Research Data Alliance Council. I urge you to consider her candidacy with the highest regard.
Patricia Muñoz Palma (The Americas)
Librarian
Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID), Chile
Nomination
Patricia Muñoz Palma is an outstanding professional with a solid academic background as a Librarian and a Master's in Digital Documentation from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Her specialisation in the management of scientific and technological information, along with her commitment to fostering and managing research, makes her a suitable candidate to contribute to the success and mission of the RDA.
She meets the established requirements for the position, particularly regarding her successful experience in working with stakeholder communities. Patricia has demonstrated remarkable skills in designing and implementing tools and programs to promote scientific and technological research, as well as in creating services for monitoring and enhancing the visibility of scientific production.
Her leadership as the president of LA Referencia from 2016 to 2018 and her current role as a member of the Board of Directors demonstrates her ability to represent the community on an international level. Patricia has also held key roles in relevant institutions, such as being the director of the Scientific Information Program at CONICYT and, since 2019, the Deputy Director of Networks, Strategy, and Knowledge at ANID.
Patricia Muñoz Palma is a highly qualified candidate who will bring her experience, skills, and dedication to the Research Data Alliance's Council. I am confident that her inclusion in this body will significantly contribute to the growth and impact that the RDA can have in Latin America and other regions.
Formal Endorsements
I am pleased to recommend Patricia Muñoz Palma for the position on the Research Data Alliance Council. Her ability to lead initiatives, implement innovative programs, and collaboratively work with various stakeholders in the open science ecosystem distinguishes her as an outstanding candidate.
It is a pleasure to recommend Patricia Muñoz Palma for the position on the Research Data Alliance Council. Her strategic vision and capacity to represent the community inclusively are distinguishing qualities. I believe she is highly qualified to integrate into the RDA Council in the coming years.
Isabelle Perseil (Europe & Africa)
Mission Head R&D in Computer Science
INSERM, France
Nomination
It is my great pleasure to nominate Dr. Isabelle Perseil for consideration for the RDA Council.
As a TAB member and a TAB co-chair with 2 mandates, Isabelle Perseil has been strongly committed to the success of RDA, encouraging the group toward continuous improvement of their activities, including the Plenaries sessions. In her day-to-day work, Isabelle interacts with communities of researchers (300 research units) from a wide range of disciplines in the life sciences. In the same way, I noticed that Isabelle was interested in all disciplines and communities of the RDA, with a common concern to seek out areas not yet addressed. Her R&D work at Inserm leads her to seek out innovations that are likely to meet the needs of research communities, and a large proportion of these innovations concern data management and AI.
Isabelle has taken the work carried out on the TAB and the Council very much to heart and has led or followed it assiduously with great enthusiasm. This criterion also applies to the role of TAB co-chair and I have always found that she represents the entire RDA community and not just her particular region, profession, or expertise. Isabelle always balances the concerns of the many factions within the RDA and never attempts to steer the initiative in such a way that it benefits any group at the expense of the greater community.
Isabelle's background (she drew up the Master Plan for the IT department at Inserm) means that she has always been particularly interested in strategic aspects and has applied them methodically and successfully. On the Council, as TAB co-chair and
therefore as a non-voting member of the Council (for just over 4 years), Isabelle has enthusiastically contributed to two strategic plans and will most certainly continue to do so, as this is one of the important motivations for joining the Board. Isabelle has a taste for responsibility and takes it seriously.
She deeply cares about the activities within the RDA and can offer a strategic forward-looking view on how RDA should be interacting with several important discipline, regional, and technical groups.
Formal Endorsements
Her active involvement in the writing of two RDA’s strategic plans is a key asset to build on as a member of the Council. She would be able to both assure continuity and new inspiration in the activities of RDA. Her global view, together with her experience, reliability, technical pragmatism and vision full of generosity and of the values of science all combined in one person is in my view an exceptional chance for the RDA Council, that with her participation would be enriched.
Her CV and her many contributions to INSERM (where she now leads the identification of innovation in computing for the entire institution) are more than enough to justify her suitability to help the Council in associated scientific discussions. Not only is she an expert on her research field, but she is an expert on establishing and implementing science policies.
Mikiko Tanifuji (Asia & Oceania)
Deputy Director
Research Center for Open Science and Data Platform (RCOS), National Institute of Informatics (NII), Japan
Nomination
I would like to nominate Mikiko Tanifuji, National Institute of Informatics, Japan, as an expert in research data infrastructure. In 2023, when she joined the NII, she took on a more advanced role than her previous RDA community membership since 2016, joining the GORC working group and participating in discussions on interoperability among data infrastructures as one of the task group members, demonstrating her deep knowledge in data sharing and ability to promote data sharing from an open research perspective. In particular, she intended to promote RDA to the Japan data community by organizing a RDA session at the Japan Open Science Summit (JOSS2023) on the interoperability of data infrastructures, a pioneering topic in Japan.
During her long career at the National Institute for Materials Science (2005-2022), she designed and developed the information infrastructure together with materials researchers and provided various databases for the institute.
In the construction of the materials data platform DICE, through collaboration with domestic and international research institutes and development vendors, she was leading Japan's first research data repository system for publishing materials data, and in particular when adopting an open source software Fedora, she collaborated with development vendors in the UK to develop the design of materials data models, metadata schema, and ontology for lexical control.
Mikiko Tanifuji will help to develop the international position of the RDA in the scientific research data communities. I, therefore, nominate her with my absolute faith as a representative of our community.
Endorsements
Mikiko is prominent in international activities that promote open science and research data commons. Being in leadership positions for ~20 years, she would bring to RDA the “senior statesperson” experience needed to contribute at the level of the Council. Having served on the Council, I understand well the combination of experience and influence required for effective participation and leadership. I can assure you that Mikiko would be an excellent member of the Council.
Given her extensive experience and participation in global open science, Mikiko’s involvement will help broaden the impact of RDA. She is well positioned to become one of the community leaders. I endorse her nomination with the highest enthusiasm and have absolutely no reservations.
VOTE HERE Thursday 29 February 2024 (00:01 UTC) to Friday 22 March 2024 (23:59 UTC)
For more information on the role of RDA’s Council, visit https://www.rd-alliance.org/about-rda/our-leadership/rda-council.html.