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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 Work Products Tracker

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 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

B4. 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

B5. Monitor and communicate research funding available for forensic science

B6. Monitor improvements based on funded research

B7. Monitor completed research identified by OSAC as a need

B8. 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 
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Collaboration with the SDOs

GOAL: Facilitate sharing of OSAC input 

and comments with SDOs

D6. Develop a repository of comments