Most NIH committee charters contain language permitting the authorized membership, commonly referred to as the parent committee, to establish standing or ad hoc subcommittees. Subcommittees may be utilized to subdivide a workload or to deal with issues in specific substantive areas. Subcommittees may be composed of non-members and selected members of the chartered or parent advisory committee. Standing and ad hoc subcommittees at NIH must follow all applicable FACA requirements. These include balanced membership and publication of meeting notices in the Federal Register. An Executive Secretary (ExecSec) or Scientific Review Administrator (SRO) must attend all meetings, minutes must be certified by the subcommittee Chair, and financial records must be kept. In addition, record keeping procedures must be followed as defined in
NIH Manual Policy Chapter 1743 – "Keeping and Destroying Records".
Standing subcommittee: Subcommittee that meets on a continuing basis.
Ad hoc subcommittee: Subcommittee established to work on a specific project or issue for a short, usually predetermined, length of time.
Quoted from the NIH OFACP Managing National Institutes of Health Federal Advisory Committees.
For information about NIH Advisory Committees, see the NIH Office of Federal Advisory Committee Policy (OFACP) website.
