The role of the Scientific Steering Committee has been laid out in the memorandum of understanding of the consortium.  This states:

Scientific Steering Committee (SSC)

Membership: This will include representation from all participating cohorts as well as members bringing valuable experience in the disease area, in epidemiological and genetic research, in statistics and methods development. It is envisaged a minimum of one person, usually the PI, will represent each study/cohort.

Responsibilities: The SSC will determine the overall strategic direction of the consortium aiming for transparency, timely communication, effective coordination, and a sharing of responsibilities, challenges, and opportunities among cohort members.

Specifically it will:

  1. Review, and approve submitted proposals or suggest new proposals, which are in line with the aims and strategic direction of the consortium
  2. Establish project specific working groups (PSWGs) for each proposal by appointing a Lead to take responsibility for PSWG group composition, contact/ invitation of suitable member cohorts, management and delivery of the aims of the proposal.
  3. Advise on and approve analytic approaches, optimal study design, publication strategies and authorship criteria for each proposal to the PSWG.
  4.  Advise formation of additional sub-committees as needed, for instance, to harmonize specific endpoints among multiple cohorts
  5. Determine which funding streams to pursue and how to target these such as creation of grant writing groups as needed.
  6. Allocate resources when these are available.
  7. The SSC will meet at approximately bi-monthly intervals (with option for more frequent meetings), led by a chair and a secretary. Quorum will be set at 30%