CINCINNATI, Ohio, July 12, 2004 / --
Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA) announces the opening of nominations for members of the 2005 core panel for the Voluntary Children’s Chemical Evaluation Program (VCCEP) peer consultations. The nomination period for the new core group will close on Friday, September 3, 2004. Nominations should include a letter describing the candidate’s specific qualifications for VCCEP peer consultations and a copy of the candidate’s Curriculum Vitae. Please refer to the desired qualifications and instructions for submitting nominations at http://www.tera.org/peer/VCCEP/VCCEPNomSelectPolicy.html. TERA will accept core group nominations from VCCEP stakeholders and from the public and will be solely responsible for the selections. TERA will select members of the new core group from the scientists nominated, as well as from other scientists whom TERA will independently identify. TERA will evaluate each candidate’s qualifications and then select a core group that provides the expertise needed to review the VCCEP assessment documents.Nominations should be submitted via e-mail or paper mail to Dr. Dan Briggs at briggs@tera.org or at the address below. Please address questions about this announcement or TERA’s selection policy, please contact:
Daniel W. Briggs, Ph.D., DABT
TERA, 2300 Montana Avenue, Suite 409
Cincinnati , OH 45211
Telephone: 513-542-7475, x21Fax: 513-542-7487
Background
As stated in the December 26, 2000, Federal Register (http://www.epa.gov/chemrtk/ts00274d.pdf), the VCCEP Peer Consultation Panels will be comprised of scientific experts with experience in toxicity testing and exposure evaluation. Some of these experts will make up a core group that will participate in all panel meetings to ensure consistency among the reviews.
The first VCCEP core group was selected in late 2002, and this group will have served for two years by the end of 2004. A new core group is being established for 2005. Details of the nomination and selection process are provided in the Nomination and Selection Policy for VCCEP Peer Consultation Panels (available at http://www.tera.org/peer/VCCEP/VCCEPNomSelectPolicy.html). Nominees may be from universities, industry, government, non-government organizations, or elsewhere. Nominees may be members of the current VCCEP core group. Interested scientists are encouraged to nominate themselves.
Before submitting a nomination, please confirm the candidate’s willingness to serve for a term of at least one year. During 2005, we anticipate holding four to six panel meetings of one or two days each. Most, if not all, the meetings are expected to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio. Meeting dates will be chosen based upon the timing of the sponsors’ submissions and the availability of panelists and support personnel.
Selected candidates must be willing to publicly disclose all real and potential conflict of interest and bias issues, and to be governed by TERA’s decisions regarding the acceptability of these issues for panel membership. TERA will work to assure that, overall, the core group reflects the differing perspectives of the stakeholders, but TERA will not guarantee the selection of scientists sharing the viewpoint of any particular stakeholder group.