Collaborator and Meeting Policy

Collaborator Policy

1. The CDIO Initiative is overseen by the CDIO Council. The Council coordinates all major CDIO activities, confirms new Collaborators, and decides on issues related to the core elements of CDIO: the Syllabus, Standards, etc, as well as matters of image and organization. The Council comprises the CDIO leaders of the original and early CDIO Collaborators: Chalmers; DTU; KTH; LiU; MIT; Queen's University, Belfast; Queen's University, Kingston; and the United States Naval Academy. Regional Centers are also Council members. Council decisions are determined by a majority vote of its members. A Council member may be both an original/early collaborator and a Regional Center (e.g., MIT; Queen's University, Belfast), however it is limited to a single vote per ballot item.
2. Institutions desiring to become CDIO Collaborators are invited by their closest, or otherwise most appropriate, Regional Center to attend one of the Center's Regional Meetings, or, at the Center's option, a meeting of the CDIO Initiative. At this meeting they present themselves, their ideas about CDIO, their plans to contribute to CDIO, as well as their expectations of the CDIO Initiative.
3. Institutions formally apply to become CDIO Collaborators by completing and returning a questionnaire supplied by the Council. The questionnaire seeks information about the institution's plans to participate in the Initiative, the program(s) to which it plans to apply CDIO, and the resources it will devote to its involvement. The Council shares the response to the questionnaire with the applicant's Regional Center, which makes a recommendation to the Council as to whether the applicant should be accepted as a Collaborator. (If there is no appropriate Regional Center, this latter step is omitted.) The Council then votes to accept/not accept the applicant. Upon acceptance to the CDIO Initiative, the institution becomes a CDIO Collaborator and a member of the appropriate Regional Group.
4. Each CDIO Collaborator appoints an individual from its institution to serve as its CDIO Leader. The CDIO Leader serves as his/her institution's primary CDIO contact and representative.
5. Regional Groups are created as needed. Their geographical boundaries will be determined by a number of factors including location, governmental jurisdiction (e.g., the EU) and other commonalities of purpose.
   • The Council is responsible for the designation of Regional Groups and Regional Centers.
   • Each Regional Group is lead by one or several of its members that has/have been designated by the Council as a Regional Center. Schools seeking to become Regional Centers apply to the Council. Regional Centers represent their Regional Groups at Council Meetings. A Regional Center receives extended support from the Council and may be represented at the Council Meetings by several representatives, of which one has the vote.
   • The Regional Center is responsible for coordinating the members of its Regional Group including organizing meetings and facilitating the exchange of ideas and information among the institutions. The Regional Center is also responsible for ensuring an exchange of ideas and information between the members of its Regional Group and the Council and other Regional Groups. Each Regional Center is encouraged to send sufficient representatives to International Collaborator Meetings to participate in all theme groups.
   • Regional Groups are encouraged to mirror CDIO development teams (curriculum, teaching and learning, etc.) within their regions.
6. Each Collaborator is responsible for funding its own CDIO activities.

Meeting Policy

1. Meetings of the CDIO Council are held twice a year.
2. Introductory/Implementation Workshops will be held when warranted. Where possible, they will be held in conjunction with scheduled CDIO Council meetings. The purpose of the workshops is to acquaint interested institutions with CDIO and to assist implementors with information necessary to begin the development of their own CDIO programs.
3. One of the annual CDIO Council meetings will be the CDIO Initiative Annual Conference. All Collaborators, including Regional Collaborators, are invited to participate.
4. Regional Centers regularly organize and lead Regional Collaborator Meetings.