Federal Aviation

REDAC and Administration

Subcommittee: Roles 

and Responsibilities

Presented by: Cathy Bigelow, ANG-E4

Date: Summer 2013
Federal Aviation

Administration

Basis for REDAC

• 49 USC § 44508 - Research advisory 

committee

• Established a research advisory committee in 

the FAA, which shall

A. Provide advice and recommendations to the 

Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration 

about needs, objectives, plans, approaches, 

content, and accomplishments of the aviation 

research program; 

B. Assist in ensuring that the research is coordinated 

with similar research being conducted outside the 

Administration; 

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Basis for REDAC, cont’d

C. Review the operations of the regional centers of air 

transportation excellence; and 

D. Annually review the allocation made by the 

Administrator of the amounts authorized among the 

major categories of research and development 

activities carried out by the Administration and 

provide advice and recommendations to the 

Administrator on whether such allocation is 

appropriate to meet the needs and objectives 

identified under subparagraph (A). 

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Basis for REDAC, cont’d

• The Administrator may establish subordinate 

committees to provide advice on specific areas 

of research.

• FAA established the following:

– Aircraft Safety

– Airports

– Environment and Energy

– Human Factors

– NAS Operations

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Operation of REDAC and 

Subcommittees

• Two sets of meetings (full committee and 

subcommittees) held annually

• First meeting in summer/fall timeframe

– Purpose is to provide strategic guidance to the FAA 

to develop the upcoming FY+3 research portfolio

– HF Subcommittee – advice on writing requirements

– FAA informs the subcommittee so they can provide 

the strategic guidance

• Review of past year activities and accomplishments

• Selected deep dives

• Drafts of FY+3 requirements (FY 2016 draft requirements)

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Operation of REDAC and 

Subcommittees

• Two sets of meetings (full committee and 

subcommittees) held annually

• Second meeting in winter/spring timeframe

– Purpose is to review the R&D portfolio developed 

based on their strategic guidance from fall meeting

– FAA briefs the proposed R&D FY+2 portfolio

– Subcommittee provides recommendations on the 

proposed portfolio

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Purpose of Subcommittees

• Formed by FAA to assist REDAC

– Provide advice to REDAC on specific areas of 

research

– Assist in identifying overarching issues that could 

affect R&D portfolio

– Help the FAA establish the best possible R&D 

portfolio within the constraints of FAA’s available 

resources

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Subcommittee Designated Federal 

Official (DFO) Responsibilities

• Work with Subcommittee Chair to schedule subcommittee 

meetings

• Coordinate meeting agenda with the Subcommittee Chair

• Attend all committee meetings 

• Work with subcommittee chair to finalize recommendations

• Accountable for providing all meeting materials to the 

subcommittee two weeks before meeting

• Responsible for taking minutes and coordinating with the 

Subcommittee Chair to have meeting minutes finalized two 

weeks after meeting

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Federal Aviation

Administration

R&R Supplement for HF 

Subcommittee

Draft FY 2016 Requirements Reveiw

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Phases of AVS Prioritization Process

• Phase 1: Technical Prioritization

• Phase 2: Requirement Cost Estimates

• Phase 3: Portfolio Budget Programming

• Phase 4: Final Review and Approval

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Phase 1: Technical Prioritization

• Technical criteria and weights

– Potential to prevent or mitigate safety risk (0.43)

– Enhance existing safety regulations and standards 

(0.35) -OR-

– Develop new safety regulations and standards 

(0.35)

– Fulfilling commitments in response to internal and 

external drivers (0.22)

• Requirements are ranked from highest to 

lowest relative priority based on the composite 

score

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Phase 1: AVS RE&D Ranking Criteria

Criteria: choose the 3 criteria that make the strongest 

case for the requirement. 

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Scoring for Ranking Criteria

Rank Evidence Impact Rating

1 High High Essential

2 Low High Very Important

3 High Low Important

4 Low Low Useful

5 None None None

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Criteria 1 – Potential to prevent or mitigate 

safety risks

• EVIDENCE - There is evidence of one or more 

of the following

1. Past aviation-related accidents, incidents, injuries, and/or 

health issues that this requirement will address (either 

prevent or mitigate).

2. Potential aviation-related accidents, incidents, injuries, 

and/or health issues that could occur that this requirement 

will address (either prevent or mitigate).

3. A significant need to identify and quantify unknown or 

potential accidents, incidents, injuries, and/or health 

hazards.

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Criteria 1 – Potential to prevent or mitigate 

safety risks

• IMPACT - The outcome of the requirement (if 

successful) will have a specific impact on one or 

more of the following:

– The prevention of accidents, incidents, injuries, and/or 

health issues or mitigation of fatalities and injuries if there 

is an accident or incident.

– The ability of the organization to understand the safety 

risk of potential accidents, incidents, injuries, and/or 

health hazards and take timely and appropriate action.

– The ability of the organization to identify and quantify 

unknown or potential accidents, incidents, injuries, and/or 

health hazards). 

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Criteria 2 – Enhance existing safety 

regulations or standards

• EVIDENCE - There is evidence of a deficiency (need to 

improve current regulations and standards) in existing 

regulations and standards that this requirement will 

address.

– Evidence should include the specific rationale justifying the 

necessity for the research to support enhancement of existing 

safety regulations and standards.

– Timely updates to existing regulations and standards are 

critical to fulfilling the AVS mission. 

NOTE: In this usage, safety regulations and standards is meant to 

encompass directives, advisory material, means of compliance practices, 

rulemaking, policy letters, and any official document issued by any 

organization in AVS.) 

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Criteria 2 – Enhance existing safety 

regulations or standards

• IMPACT - The outcome of the requirement (if 

successful) will have a specific, timely, and 

positive impact in addressing deficiency in 

existing regulations or standards.

NOTE: If the TCRG uses criteria 2 to justify 

the ranking of a requirement for a given fiscal 

year, then criteria 3 does not apply in that 

fiscal year. Criteria 3 may be used in 

subsequent fiscal years.

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Criteria 3 – Develop new safety regulations 

or standards

• EVIDENCE - There is evidence of a need to 

develop new safety regulations and standards.

1. Should include the specific rationale justifying the 

necessity for the research to support development 

of the new safety regulations and standards.

2. Timely development of appropriate regulations and 

standards is critical to fulfilling the AVS mission. 

NOTE: In this usage, safety regulations and standards encompasses 

directives, advisory material, means of compliance practices, 

rulemaking, policy letters, and any official document issued by any 

organization in AVS.

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Criteria 3 – Develop new safety regulations 

or standards

• IMPACT - The outcome of this requirement (if 

successful) will have a specific, timely, and 

positive impact on the ability of AVS to perform 

its mission.

NOTE: If the TCRG uses criteria 3 to justify the 

ranking of a requirement for a given fiscal year, 

then criteria 2 does not apply in that fiscal year. 

Criteria 2 may be used in subsequent fiscal 

years.

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Phase 2: Requirement Cost Estimates

• Performing organizations develop cost estimates for requirement 

prioritized in Phase 1

• Cost estimates will include:

– High, medium, and low cost plan for the year of execution

– Fiscal year costs for the duration of the research project

– Estimated travel costs by requirement and explanation of how the travel 

supports the requirement

– Number of RE&D in-house fulltime equivalents (FTEs) that will support the 

requirement, by fiscal year, for the expected duration of the research project

– Estimates of performing organizations’ facility costs on a per unit basis and all 

other associated overhead costs for each research project that uses a facility

• Performers work closely with sponsors to ensure requirement and cost 

estimate are clearly aligned and to clarify any ambiguities in the 

requirement. Sponsors may be asked to validate cost estimates against 

planned activity.

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Phase 3: Portfolio Budget Programming

• Each AVS RED Group member reviews the 

cost estimates for each requirement

• AVS RED Group meets to discuss and program 

funds to the requirements

– Funding is programmed to requirements in priority 

order until the budget target is exhausted

– Carryover funding is reviewed and considered in the 

development of the draft portfolio

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Phase 4: Final Review and Approval

• Draft portfolio recommended by the AVS RED 

Group undergoes an iterative set of reviews

– S/O Review and Approval: S/Os validate the 

prioritization, provide guidance, and recommend 

adjustments to ensure that the most critical AVS research 

will be accomplished within the anticipated budget 

targets.

– Other Reviews: Include Aircraft Safety PPT, REB, 

REDAC, and SAS.

– Final AVSMT Review and Approval: 

• Final approval of the AVS R&D Portfolio is granted 

by AVS-1 and the AVSMT (~Mar-Apr 2014)

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Examples of Top Ranked 

Requirements

The following FY 2015 requirements were 

ranked in the Top 15:

1. TAS-15-01 Models for Advanced Flight Simulators 

For Advanced Maneuvers

2. FCMS-15-02 Preventing Loss of Control in Part 23 

by Safer Automation using Envelope Protection

3. UAS-15-02 Sense and Avoid (SAA) System 

Certification Considerations Testing and Validation 

of Non-deterministic Data Processing

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Federal Aviation

Administration

END

Questions???

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Federal Aviation

Administration

AVS Requirements Terminology

• Exit Criteria – measureable goal of a phase that must be met before moving to the next phase.

• Implementation Plan – detailed description of what the sponsoring organization is going to do with 

the outputs to achieve the stated outcome. Plans could include publishing policy and guidance, 

deploying training, publishing industry standards, rulemaking, etc.

• Metric – measurement of a change from a baseline. In R&D, the metrics are used to judge the 

completion of a phase against the exit criteria to justify moving to the next phase.

• Milestone – significant event in the process of conducting the research project that indicates a 

decision point or release of an output.

• Outcome – future state desired by the sponsoring organization in a given area under their 

responsibility.

• Output – results of the research, usually in the form of a final FAA report; the deliverables supplied 

at the completion of a set of research tasks.

• Phase – logical groupings of milestones and tasks with specific exit criteria and timelines for each 

phase within a research project.

• Requirement Write-up – description of the necessary research entered into the required AVS R&D 

Submission Form on the AVS RE&D Management System SharePoint website.

• Research Project – organized collection of tasks, milestones, and phases intended to satisfy the 

research requirement. There is one research project for each research requirement. Outputs from 

the research project are applied by the sponsor to the execution of the implementation plan.

• Research Requirement – term used to describe an area of inquiry that supports the needs of a 

sponsor.

• Task – specific step in the process of conducting the research project that leads to an output.

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Definitions

• AIR REDMT – Aircraft Certification RE&D Management Team

• AVS REDMT – Aviation Safety RE&D Management Team 

• Implementation – The activity planned by the sponsoring organization to use the research output to achieve the desired outcome. (i.e. rule, 

advisory circular, policy, training, etc.)

• OPI – Office of Primary Interest. The primary sponsor contact with a TCRG. There is only one OPI per TCRG and the individuals that are 

designated OPIs are delegated program coordination responsibilities by their respective SMT Manager.

• Outcome – A future state desired by the sponsor

• Output – The results of a research project (i.e. reports, data, etc.) that are used by the Sponsor to produce rules/guidance/training/etc. to achieve 

the desired outcomes

• Performer – The Technical Center organization/individuals that conduct or provide contract oversight for the research

• PPT – Program Planning Team

• REB – RE&D Executive Board

• REDAC – RE&D Advisory Committee. A group of industry, academia, and non-FAA government agency people that advise the FAA 

Administrator on RE&D.

• RE&D – Research, Engineering, & Development. The term that refers specifically to the process for obtaining and spending budget to 

accomplish research.

• SAS – Subcommittee on Aircraft Safety (part of REDAC that advises the Administrator on AVS RE&D)

• Sponsor – The individual assigned the responsibility for participating in a given research project by the management of the Sponsoring 

Organization. Their name will appear in the “Sponsor” field on the requirement write-up. In AIR, technical responsibility is usually delegated 

from the SMT Manager to one or more individual TCRG Members assigned to the TCRG.

• Sponsoring Organization – The AVS organization that is requesting the research and using it to develop rules/guidance/training/etc. to achieve 

the desired outcome. The manager has the responsibility and authority in the Sponsoring Organization and may delegate some or all of it to 

others within their organization. (e.g. within AIR, the Service responsibilities for RE&D are delegated to the SMT)

• TCRG – Technical Community Representative Group consisting of AVS (sponsor) and FAA Technical Center (performer) personnel focused on 

a particular discipline (i.e. icing, flight controls, etc.)

• TCRG Lead – The focal point responsible for the operation of a given TCRG. Their responsibilities include calling TCRG meetings, 

disseminating information about the AVS R&D process, helping the TCRG members write requirements, and interfacing with the OPI.

• TCRG Member – The individual assigned by the Sponsoring Organization management to represent their respective organization on the TCRG.

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Key Stakeholders and Functions

• Research Sponsor

– Defines and owns the R&D requirement which supports identification, 

validation, or development of knowledge, technologies, systems, and 

procedures required to meet the safety goals of regulatory and oversight 

programs

– Develops and takes ownership of requirements; responsible for monitoring 

research and post-research implementation progress

– Shares planning and budgeting for research execution with research providers

– Sponsoring Organizations: AAM, AFS, AIR, AOV, AVP

• Research Performer

– Manages the research that fulfills the R&D requirement and provides research 

results

– Provides technical expertise, advice, and recommendations for research 

requirements

– Planning and budgeting for research execution are shared responsibilities 

between Research Sponsors and Performers

– Performer Organizations: AAM-500, AAM-600, ANG-C, ANG-E

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Key Stakeholders and Functions

• Technical Community Representative Groups (TCRGs) 

– The initial point-of-origin in AVS for identifying research requirements within a 

particular area of technical responsibility in certification and safety monitoring

– Work with the larger technical community consisting of individuals and groups 

in government, industry, and academia who are responsible for a particular 

technical area

– Ensure that all proposed requirements are vetted through the sponsoring S/O

– Suggest new technical requirements, approaches, and technical solutions to 

meet research requirements

– Examples of such sources include:

• Policy staffs 

• FAA management 

• Field inspectors 

• Engineers 

• Pilots 

• National Resource Specialists (NRS) 

• Chief Scientist and Technical Advisors (CSTAs) 

• The aviation community at large

• The research community 

– Participating Organizations: AVS S/Os, ANG offices, and other FAA LOBs

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Key Stakeholders and Functions

• AVS Research, Engineering, and Development (RED) Group

– Made up of six members representing AVS, AAM, AFS, AIR, AOV, and AVP.

– Responsible for managing the AVS R&D Process for each participating S/O.

– Collects all requirements that have been submitted by the TCRGs and approved by the 

Sponsoring Directorate or Division and prioritizes them using the AVS ranking standards. 

– The AVS RED Group uses a two-phased approach to develop the R&D Portfolio:

1. Technical evaluation of requirements

2. Cost evaluation

– Each AVS RED Group member is responsible for coordinating concurrence or 

changes to the proposed AVS R&D Portfolio within their S/O.

– Participating Organizations: AAM, AFS, AIR, AOV, AVP

• Office of Primary Interest (OPI) 

– The Program Planning Team (PPT) will identify one OPI for each TCRG. The OPI is has 

the greatest interest in or need for research in the technical area. The OPI provides the 

TCRG with leadership and management support. 

– Each OPI will designate an OPI representative, usually an R,E&D coordinator or program 

manager from a Directorate or Division, who coordinates requirement completion and 

submittal.

– Participating Organizations: AAM, AFS, AIR, AVP

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Key Stakeholders and Functions

• FAA Program Planning Teams (PPT)

– The PPTs are the primary preparers of process documentation and include research 

sponsors and performers.

– The PPT monitors sponsor development progress of research requirements and, as 

required, meets to finalize and balance research requests and reconcile the budget target for 

a fiscal year.

– AVS is the lead of the Safety PPT.

– Participating Organizations for Aircraft Safety PPT: AAM, AFS, AIR, AOV, AVP, ANG-C1, 

ANG-E2

• FAA R,E&D Executive Board (REB)

– The REB members use a top-down oversight approach to managing the portfolio process to:

• Guide the initial portfolio planning and preparation phase. 

• Oversee the gathering of multiple projects’ budget requests into one comprehensive R,E&D budget. 

• Oversee program impacts of the budget deliberation process. 

– Participating Organizations: ANG, AEE, ARP, AST, AVS, ABA, AIO, ABP-330

• Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee (REDAC) and 

Subcommittees

– The Congressionally-mandated REDAC, established in 1989, advises the FAA Administrator 

on research and development issues. It also coordinates the FAA’s R,E&D activities with 

industry and other government agencies.

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