Metaproteomics Initiative - Organizational Structure

The Metaproteomics Initiative’s Organizational Structure Mission and Vision We promote dissemination of metaproteomics fundamentals, advancements, and applications through collaborative networking in microbiome research. We aim to be the central information hub and open meeting place where newcomers and experts interact to communicate, standardize and accelerate experimental and bioinformatic methodologies in this field. Organigram This organigram represents the initial structure of the Initiative. However, as time goes by, this structure can be evaluated and improved. The Executive Board The Executive Board (EB) is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Metaproteomics Initiative, and will be elected at the International Metaproteomics Symposium. You need to be a member of the Initiative to be elected in the EB, and only members of the Initiative can vote for the EB. The EB consists of the following roles: - Administrator (2) - Tasks: lead and prepare meetings and agenda, keep contact with EuPA - Secretary (1) - Tasks: taking notes during meetings, listing to-do´s - Treasurer (1) - Tasks: responsible for finances, will report to EuPA Treasurer as well - Communication (1) - Tasks: reach out to researchers from closely related fields (e.g. biology, microbiology, microbiome research, bioinformatics, statististics,…) and introduce the Initiative, prepare promotional material, take care of BaseCamp and Twitter - Webmaster (1) - Task: take care of the website, experience with GitHub is preferred. - Working group coordinator (1) - Task: organize open, quarterly meeting with all members; organizing the working groups - Scientific Advisors (6) - Task: provide scientific advice to the WGs, incl. follow-up CAMPI studies. These advisors must be experts in ideally different fields (e.g. sample processing, bioinformatics, multi-omics), and are member of the scientific committee of IMS - Symposium organizers* (2) - Tasks: organize the International Metaproteomics Symposium, and provide advice to the new organizer afterwards - Education (1) - Tasks: reach out to new researchers via educational material, and collect and list educational material on the website. - International correspondence (1 per continent not represented yet in EB) - Task: Reach out to underrepresented continents, communicate about our Initiative (*) The main organizers of the previous and next symposium will be automatically co-opted in the EB, and can be combined with an elected position. The EB meetings will be organized regularly and will discuss the logistics and administration of running the Initiative, but not include scientific discussions. Between the meetings, the EB members can contact each other via a designated BaseCamp Team. In first place, these meetings are intended for the elected board members, but non-elected, interested members can join on request ([email protected]). Working Groups Definition and examples Next to the EB, there will be Working Groups (WG). A WG is defined as a group of researchers with a clearly defined task that aligns with the Initiative’s Mission and Vision statement. This task has a clearly defined, realistic end goal, and once this goal has been reached, the WG will be closed. A few examples of potential WGs: - “CAMPI x - multi-lab comparison of sample processing techniques” - Goal: manuscript about comparison of commonly used sample processing techniques in metaproteomics → This WG will be closed once the manuscript is published. - “Summer school 202x” - Goal: Organize a summer school about metaproteomics in the summer of 202x → This WG will be closed once the summer school has finished. - “Sample processing techniques” - Goal: discussing sample processing techniques → This is not a valid WG, there’s no clear end goal. We should avoid these. - Goal: “Develop a tutorial describing the sample processing protocols used in CAMPI” → This, however, is a valid WG. The WG will be closed when the tutorial is finished. Initiating a WG In general, no formal proposal is needed for starting a WG. Although, for large projects, such as follow-up CAMPI studies or large collaborations, it is highly recommended to discuss this with the scientific advisors from the EB and during the open quarterly meeting. Any member can create WGs. The member needs to create a Basecamp Project starting with the template provided in BaseCamp. The guidelines are provided in the project template: [MI] Working Group template. This template has to be used for initiating Working Groups within the Metaproteomics Initiative. To do's: 1. Change the name of the project to "[MI] WG: <name of the working group>" 2. Add the collaborators from the Metaproteomics Initiative and EB scientific advisors as project members 3. Change the description to the goal of the project. Remember that the goal has to align with the Metaproteomics Initiative’s Mission and Vision statement. Moreover, the goal has to be a clearly defined, realistic end task. Once this task has been reached, the WG will be closed. 4. Good luck with this project! Don't forget that every quarter somebody has to present a project update on the open Metaproteomics Initiative meeting. Joining a WG All members can ask to join the WG, which will be a designated BaseCamp Project. Each WG is free to organize as many meetings of their WG as they find useful. Every 3 months, somebody from the WG should provide a short update presentation at the open online meeting for all members. Members Everyone can freely join the Initiative by filling in the registration form. All members are added to the BaseCamp Project “Metaproteomics Initiative Forum” where they can interact with each other. They can ask here for scientific advice, post proposals for new WGs or request to join existing WGs. All members are, via this BaseCamp Project and via mail, invited to the quarterly meeting where the EB and WGs will provide an update.