Ottawa, ON — The Consortia Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information (CASRAI), the not-for-profit information standards association for the research administration industry, has elected Janet Halliwell as its new President and has appointed David Baker as its new Executive Director. As Executive Director David Baker is responsible for leading the operational and strategic efforts of CASRAI and reports to its Board of Directors. Janet Halliwell also continues in her role as Chair of the Board of Directors.
"I am absolutely delighted that David Baker has agreed to take on this key role in CASRAI. He brings to CASRAI over 15 years of expertise in research administration data exchange and management," stated Janet Halliwell, CASRAI Chair and President. "Mr. Baker has a deep personal commitment to development of open standards for use in research administration and for their adoption to facilitate electronic exchange and mining of the information in our industry." Prior to this appointment to CASRAI Mr. Baker was employed by Quebec based information technology company eVision, Inc. where he led implementations of electronic grant management and curriculum-vitae systems across Canada. He also served a three year term as CASRAI President and was a co-founder of the consortia.
"It's a key moment in our community effort to reduce the administrative burden on researchers and capitalize on other organizational benefits of standards-based operations," said David Baker, Executive Director of CASRAI. "I look forward to continuing my work with the stakeholders in the research community - universities, research funders and related organizations - as we collectively identify and evolve new standards, business and use models, and enhanced electronic exchange," stated Mr. Baker.
Earlier this year CASRAI completed its first round of public consultations on its Standard Information Profile for Researchers and Students (CV Standard), achieving an unprecedented level of multi-discipline flexibility from a single data source. CASRAI is now launching two new standards initiatives focusing on research activities (programs & projects) and outcomes & benefits. Several leading funders and universities actively participate in CASRAI working groups and the list of participating organizations is growing.
About CASRAI
CASRAI is a fully independent, not-for-profit organization that develops, maintains, and promotes standards for research administration data. It is supported by members of the research administration industry. CASRAI's mandate is to develop research administration standards that will improve the overall efficiency of research administration. Data intensive business processes (grant applications, progress reporting, and final reporting to funders, etc.) become more efficient and flexible in an environment based on data standards. CASRAI develops data standards that are both open and technologically neutral. This means members are free to use any IT systems they prefer to exchange research-related data.