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Long Term Strategic Plan

Organization of Scientific Area Committees for 

Forensic Science

Mission Statement

The mission of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science is to strengthen the 

nation’s use of forensic science by facilitating the development and the use of high-quality, technically sound 

standards. These standards define minimum requirements, best practices, standard protocols, and other 

guidance to help ensure that the results of forensic analysis are reliable and reproducible. 

Organization

The Forensic Science Standards Board (FSSB) oversees OSAC and provides strategic direction to coordinate the 

alignment of OSAC goals and stakeholders’ needs. The FSSB recognizes that OSAC is a collection of volunteers 

who donate their talent, expertise, and energy, supported by their employers. 

Executive Summary

This Strategic Plan includes four focus areas. 

● Inclusion is critical to ensuring that stakeholders not only represent the broad range of constituents in 

the forensic science community but also the diversity of members and perspectives in the U.S., is 

important to success. 

● Development of Standards is a foundational purpose. Improvement in forensic science will not occur 

without standards development, creating standards that do not exist and improving those that do. 

Development also includes identifying research and other needs. 

● Implementation of high-quality, technically sound standards into practice will strengthen forensic 

science. Accessibility of forensic science standards to the stakeholder community is also critical. 

● Ongoing Improvement within OSAC results from willingness to listen to stakeholders, critically 

examine processes and procedures on a regular basis, and continually improve organizational 

efficiency and effectiveness.
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Inclusion

Objective: OSAC will strive to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization from a broad and diverse group of stakeholders.

Project & Goal Metric

Recruitment Strategy: Advertisement and communication 

through forensic organizations; internal and external 

publications such as OSAC’s quarterly newsletter 

(including an annual report in the fall edition), In-Brief, 

articles, and technical publications; website; social media; 

forensic meetings; and presentations

GOAL: Increase the diversity of viewpoints of members 

engaged in the OSAC activities as well as the number of 

interested and qualified applicants.

A1. Demographics (e.g., gender, race, interest category, viewpoints) of 

applicants

A2. Demographics (e.g., gender, race, interest category, viewpoints) of 

membership (members and affiliates)

A3. Outreach mechanisms employed

A4. Number of public comments received on OSAC proposed standards 

and range of stakeholders commenting

A5. Data collected related to filling STR positions
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Development of Standards

Objective: OSAC will identify needs for research and standards, and monitor progress of its organizational standard development priorities. 

Project & Goal Metric

OSAC Annual Goals and Deliverables

GOAL: Develop and maintain a tool that allows the FSSB 

to monitor and track progress of OSAC document 

development activities toward organizational priorities

B1. Biannual review of progress

B2. Annual SAC report of activities toward annual goals, and plan for 

next year

B3. Annual metrics: goals met, partially met, and not met; number of 

work products at each phase; number of work products that have 

progressed; standards revised

Stakeholder meetings and other engagement events

GOAL: Engage the breadth of the forensic science 

stakeholder community to share progress and receive 

feedback through at least 2 meetings/year

B5. Number of attendees, and feedback received from stakeholders

Addressing research needs in forensic science

GOAL: Support and encourage the academic and research 

community to engage and address research needs 

identified by OSAC

B6. Monitor and communicate research funding available for forensic 

science

B7. Monitor improvements based on funded research

B8. Monitor completed research identified by OSAC as a need

B9. Annually review and revise OSAC-identified research needs
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Implementation

Objective: OSAC will promote the use of voluntary consensus standards, and track and support FSSPs adoption of standards on the OSAC Registry.

Project & Goal Metric

AAFS/NIST Cooperative Agreement Project

GOAL: Engage with AAFS to produce practical 

implementation tools to support implementation

C1. Number of standards checklists developed

Collaborative Activities with Other Organizations

GOAL: Identify opportunities to engage with other 

professional forensic organizations to remove barriers to 

implementation

C2. Collaboration(s) established

C3. Tools produced through collaboration(s) to support implementation

Standards Approval Messaging

GOAL: Ensure forensic science stakeholders are aware of 

all OSAC standards activities including new documents on 

the Registry, OSAC work products, and implementation 

tools

C4. Regular OSAC communications

C5. Adoption of standards on the OSAC Registry by certification or 

other authoritative bodies

C6. Collaboration with professional forensic organizations to 

communicate and promote implementation of standards and address 

barriers

OSAC Implementer Declaration

GOAL: Increase the number of FSSPs engaged in the 

Implementer Declaration process, and increase the 

number of standards that are being implemented

C7. Number of FSSPs implementing

C8. Number and type of Registry standards implemented
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OSAC Registry implementation survey

GOAL: Conduct an annual survey to assess the state of 

implementation of the standards on the OSAC Registry.

C9. Number of survey respondents and nonrespondents

Improve the accessibility of forensic science standards

GOAL: Increase the availability of OSAC Registry 

standards and work products to forensic science 

stakeholders and the public

C10. Improvements to access mechanisms and pathways for OSAC 

Registry standards and work products for forensic science stakeholders

C11. Page views on the Registry page (standards and work products)
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Ongoing Improvement

Objective: OSAC will continually evaluate and improve its processes and procedures to best support its primary goals of developing and promoting 

the use of voluntary consensus standards. OSAC will work to ensure there is collaboration during the standards development and commenting 

processes, both internally and while at the SDOs.

Project & Goal Metric

Organizational Priorities

GOAL: Validate stated and agreed upon organizational 

priorities, and communicate them to organizational 

membership

D1. Biennial review

Internal OSAC training and communication

GOAL: Ensure OSAC Membership is aware of current 

OSAC processes and objectives

D2. Training sessions

Method to assess standards

GOAL: Develop a method to assess against the 

organizational objectives of OSAC against the maturity of 

standards being considered for the Registry, and 

improvements to existing OSAC Registry

D3. Develop a method for Registry standard assessment against 

organizational objectives

D4. Implement the standard assessment method and track 

improvements

Continuous Improvement

GOAL: Enhance the mechanism to receive feedback from 

both internal and external OSAC Stakeholders

D5. Question and answer sessions for OSAC leadership during quarterly 

FSSB meetings 

Collaboration with the SDOs

GOAL: Facilitate sharing of OSAC input and comments 

with SDOs

D6. Develop a repository of comments.