UCS is working to support scientists who are seeking pathways to sustain their scientific work, including by setting up independent advisory committees. To get engaged with independent science initiatives, you can learn more about how they work across the government, identify committees in your field, and search for information about specific committees that are of interest.
Knowing your way around the government-run FACA database is a good first step. The database hosts information on past and current federal advisory committees and is regularly maintained by the General Services Administration. It is an extremely useful resource for learning more about advisory committees or establishing your own independent committee.
How to use the FACA database
For official government training materials, check out the FACA Database Training Video and the FACA Database Public Access Help Manual. If you ever run into issues on the Database or have specific questions that aren’t answered in the Manual, you can use the HelpDesk feature.
How to get general information about federal advisory committees
First get yourself oriented and ready to explore federal advisory committee data on the FACA Database Help Page, which defines key terms and acronyms that will help you understand the best way to query the dataset to meet your needs.
If you’re interested in understanding the breadth of advisory committees across the federal government, you can explore the full government-wide dataset and comprehensive summaries of the data, which provide quick statistics about federal advisory committees in certain years. You can also obtain a quick count of the number of advisory committees in a given year on the Gov’t Wide Statistics page. Using the Gov’t Wide Totals page, you can review the breakdown of the number of active, inactive, terminated, and merged committees in a year. There is also a FACA dashboard which can display tailored committee information visually.
How to get background information on a specific committee
If you’re looking for information about a specific committee, you can use the Agencies/Committees tab to find the correct agency and click on the committee of interest. In this section of the database, you can find information about the committee’s purpose and function, how and when it was created, learn about its performance measures, and download its historical charters and reports. Committee charters are usually renewed every two years and will contain information about how often the committee will meet, the types of activities they will participate in, and the types of experience and expertise the committee members typically have or are sometimes required to have.
How to identify committee members
You can use the FACA Dataset tab to download the list of members on all federal advisory committees from 1997 to 2023. You can also create your own filtered report for members of a certain committee or at a specific agency by using the Search tab and using the ‘Member Search.’ If you’re looking to build an independent advisory committee, you will need the latest membership list for your committee. You can also search for historical membership lists if you are interested in gaining institutional knowledge of the committee’s past charges and documents. Reaching out to former members may also help you gain volunteers to support your effort!
How to dive deeper with full datasets
If you’re interested in doing a deeper dive and more detailed analysis, you can download spreadsheets with information that can be used to tell you how many people served on federal advisory committees across the government, in a specific agency or subset of agencies, and how many committees each agency had in a given year, as examples. You can either use the FACA Dataset tab for the government-wide dataset or you can tailor searches and downloadable reports by using the Search tab.
Related resources
Independent Science Efforts Currently Underway
Independent Science Committees
UCS: What We Do
