Credit: NIST
The Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science has updated its structure and improved several processes. These changes will enable OSAC, which is administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to more quickly make high-quality, science-based standards available to forensic laboratories.
OSAC strengthens the nation’s use of forensic science by facilitating and promoting the development and use of 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.
“These changes, developed with extensive stakeholder input, will optimize OSAC processes while strengthening the rigorous technical review of proposed standards,” said Shyam Sunder, NIST’s senior science adviser and acting director of the Special Programs Office, which oversees the forensic science program at NIST, including OSAC. “Our goal is to accelerate the widespread adoption and use of high-quality standards by forensic science practitioners.”
In 2014, NIST and the Department of Justice formed OSAC to address the lack of discipline-specific forensic science standards. OSAC fills this gap by drafting proposed standards and sending them to standards developing organizations (SDOs), which further develop and publish them. OSAC also reviews standards and posts high-quality ones to the OSAC Registry. Inclusion on the OSAC Registry indicates that a standard is technically sound and that laboratories should consider adopting it.
Changes to OSAC’s structure include the addition of a new scientific area committee (SAC) for forensic med ..
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