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Project Governance

Last update: March 2026

1. Introduction

These Governance Documents establish the structure, principles, and processes that guide the Zebrafish Toxicology Phenotype Atlas Project (ZAPP). They define the rules, expectations, and responsibilities necessary to support the long-term success, transparency, and sustainability of the project.

These documents address:

ZAPP is a project funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). ZAPP's mission is to build a community-driven zebrafish toxicophenotype Atlas supported by standardized data models, ontologies, and annotation tools. These Governance Documents have been developed to support this mission and to meet funder expectations, including commitments to:

  • Openness
  • Inclusivity
  • Scientific rigor
  • FAIR data principles
  • Community engagement

Together, these policies provide a foundation for responsible stewardship of the ZAPP infrastructure and community.

2. Project Structure and Roles

This section defines the governance structure, decision-making authority, and roles within ZAPP.

2.1. Principal Investigators

Sabrina Toro, Ph.D., (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ORCID: 0000-0002-4142-7153) and Alexa Burger, Ph.D., (University of Colorado Anschutz, ORCID: 0000-0001-7137-3910) serve as Multiple Principal Investigators (MPI) for ZAPP.

Responsibilities of the MPIs:

  • Providing scientific leadership and strategic direction
  • Overseeing fiduciary responsibilities
  • Managing NIH reporting requirements
  • Ensuring alignment with project milestones and objectives
  • Supporting governance and sustainability planning

Decision Authority Reserved for the MPIs:

The MPIs retain final decision authority for:

  • Budget allocation
  • Personnel decisions
  • Grant milestones and reporting
  • Project direction and scope
  • Governance structure
  • Sustainability planning

These decisions are informed by recommendations from the Advisory Group, Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), maintainers, working groups, and the broader community.

2.2. Project Management

Role

The Project Manager (PM) works closely with the MPIs and serves as a bridge between leadership and the ZAPP maintainers. The PM helps ensure that the project runs smoothly by keeping communication open and consistent across all levels of the project. The PM is responsible for choosing the appropriate project management strategy and collaborating with ZAPP maintainers to ensure consistent workflows and tracking. In certain scenarios, the PM may be given decision-making authority by the MPIs.

Responsibilities:

  • Main contact between MPIs and ZAPP maintainers
  • Coordinates meetings, updates, and community outreach
  • Translates leadership/MPI goals into ZAPP maintainer tasks
  • Surfaces blockers and risks to leadership
  • Gathers ZAPP maintainer feedback for MPI decisions
  • Guides adherence to community standards
  • Maintains roadmaps, requirements, and issue trackers with ZAPP maintainers

2.3. Internal Advisory Team

Members: Anne Thessen, Melissa Haendel, Jonathan Hamm

Role

The Internal Advisory Team provides frequent guidance to ZAPP leadership by contributing domain expertise, institutional knowledge, and familiarity with the toxicology data ecosystem and community-driven projects.

Responsibilities:

  • Advising on strategic direction
  • Advising on governance decisions
  • Advising on sustainability planning
  • Supporting conflict resolution when needed

2.4. Scientific Advisory Committee (SAB)

Purpose: The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) is an independent body of experts designed to serve in an advisory capacity to ZAPP team about the status and direction of ZAPP. Members will be selected for their research, programmatic, and/or technology expertise with a focus on inclusive excellence. The SAB will provide strategic observations and feedback on existing and proposed activities and partnerships, including prioritization of new development, external funding opportunities, operational issues, and long-term planning.

Membership: The SAB will comprise 6-8 members with expertise relevant to the ZAPP mission, including, but not limited to: computer science, data curation, data structuring/modeling, toxicology, imaging, community outreach, zebrafish, training, and user experience design. Potential members might represent a variety of career stages or have experience working with NIH and other institutions. The ZAPP MPIs and Internal Advisory team will nominate experts for SAB membership. Nominations will be proposed every two years. Candidates will reflect the diversity of the zebrafish toxicology ecosystem. Determining whether someone is qualified for membership on the SAB is not static, and is commensurate with the pressing needs and strategic objectives at the given time as decided by the MPIs with advice from the Internal Advisory Members.

Duties and operations: The SAB will serve in an advisory role, providing observations and feedback to the ZAPP Leadership team. The SAB will meet or connect with members of the ZAPP team once per year, with ad hoc meetings as needed. Jonathan Hamm (internal advisory team) will serve as the chair and facilitator for SAB meetings. Additional meetings may be scheduled throughout the year to facilitate discussions between the SAB and ZAPP leadership team on specific topics. Jonathan Hamm will write a summary of their feedback for ZAPP Leadership within one week of the meeting.

2.5. ZAPP Maintainers

Maintainers are project team members responsible for the technical and operational functioning of ZAPP resources, including developers, curators, and infrastructure contributors.

Responsibilities:

  • Reviewing and supporting contributions
  • Managing releases
  • Ensuring adherence to quality standards
  • Maintaining infrastructure and tools
  • Implementing approved project decisions

Maintainers operate under the direction of the MPIs and PM.

2.6. Working Group Members

Working groups are formed to address specific project needs or deliverables.

Examples include:

  • Data Model Working Group
  • Ontology Working Group
  • Atlas Curation Working Group
  • Toolkit/Software Working Group

Membership

Community members may express interest in participating in working groups. Working group members are selected by ZAPP MPIs and maintainers based on the expertise required for the group's goals.

Working Group Leads

Each working group will have one or more leads from the ZAPP Maintainers responsible for:

  • Coordinating activities
  • Organizing meetings
  • Communicating progress to ZAPP leadership
  • Ensuring deliverables are completed

PM support for working group leads is available for working groups as needed.

Lifecycle

The working groups:

  • are formed for defined purposes
  • operate with defined timelines and deliverables
  • are dissolved when objectives are completed

2.7. Community Contributors

Contributors are individuals who actively contribute to ZAPP through:

  • Data submissions
  • Code contributions
  • Image or annotation contributions
  • Documentation improvements
  • Reviews
  • Issue reporting
  • Feature suggestions

Responsibilities:

2.8. Community Members

Community members include all users, stakeholders, and researchers who engage with ZAPP resources.

Community members help shape ZAPP through:

  • Participating in discussions
  • Reporting issues
  • Suggesting improvements
  • Providing feedback
  • Participating in review processes
  • Browsing and/or using data from the Atlas

Community members are expected to:

  • Adhere to the Code of Conduct
  • Disclose conflicts of interest when relevant

3. Decision-Making Processes

ZAPP is committed to transparent, inclusive, and well-documented decision-making.

3.1. Transparency and Documentation

All formal decisions made by the ZAPP Leadership Team are documented in:

  • Official project records (e.g., shared project drive), and
  • Public GitHub issues or pull requests, when applicable.

Discussions related to technical changes, standards, governance updates, and policy decisions are conducted as openly as possible.

3.2. Participation

Community members may participate in the decision-making process by:

  • Attending open workshops or meetings, when available
  • Commenting on GitHub issues or pull requests
  • Submitting proposals via GitHub issues or helpdesk

Participation is encouraged, and feedback is considered as part of the deliberation process.

3.3. Decision Model

The ZAPP Leadership Team follows a consensus-seeking model, meaning:

  • Efforts are made to gather input from relevant stakeholders
  • Discussion is encouraged to identify areas of agreement and concern
  • Reasonable time is allowed for feedback before decisions are finalized

Consensus-seeking does not require unanimity.

3.4. Final Authority

While community participation is welcomed and valued, final decision-making authority rests with the ZAPP MPIs.

Decisions are made in alignment with:

  • The project mission and scope
  • Grant and fiduciary obligations
  • Sustainability considerations
  • Technical feasibility

The MPIs retain responsibility for ensuring that decisions support the long-term health and integrity of the project.

4. Amendment Process

These Governance Documents may be amended through the following process:

  • Proposed changes are submitted as GitHub pull requests to this repository.
  • A review period of at least one week is provided for community feedback.
  • The ZAPP MPIs make the final decision on whether to accept amendments.
  • All changes are tracked through version control for transparency.