This procedure applies to the election of future board members. It does not apply to the election of the secretary, treasurer, president, president-elect and councillors. The latter will be proposed by the CED-IADR board on the basis of their experience and knowledge to ensure continuity in the management positions within CED-IADR and the representation thereof.

To this effect, the Board shall ensure that these procedures will enable them to identify the most suitable candidates at any time, based on the needs of the relevant vacancy, striving for diversity in country representation, scientific fields, experience and gender. These procedures should permit a transparent selection of future BMs.

The committee is convinced that diversity will make the CED-IADR board stronger. Our board should reflect the diversity of our non-profit association and its members (e.g. gender, scientific research field, country). Moreover, the diversity of the Board will be of importance for fundraising reasons.

• The procedure comes into force in 2021, applying to available positions, and will be executed gradually when current terms will be concluded. This means that current Board Members of the CED-IADR Board will finish their term as agreed. 
• For transparency reasons and the concept of being “member-driven” the final approved procedure should be communicated to all members by email; the procedure will be visible at the association’s website and any new vacancy should be also posted on social media. 
• This proposed procedure may also be considered (wherever possible) for the composition of the different committees which, together with the CED-IADR Board, constitute a key element in CED-IADR governance. The association bodies shall also ensure a suitable and diverse composition, composed of individuals who have experience and knowledge that enable the right balance to be attained in the composition of association bodies, to improve operation, representation and performance of their duties.
• The committee acknowledged the importance of the continuity (robust and effective core organisation) of the Leuven secretariat. This should be maintained by all terms through linking the office with the secretary position. This position grants the association the possibility of having an office in KU Leuven and the secretary is assigned the power of attorney over the association’s affairs.
• An open and transparent process is expected to contribute to availability/motivation/involvement, for which any Regular Member in good standing may apply to serve as a Board Member.
• It was mutually agreed that female board representation needs to be increased (currently there are 2 female members in the board).
• In most cases, the president organizes the congress but not at all times (e.g. when the PER-IADR is organized by another PER-IADR division, the congress president will not be the ‘president of CED-IADR’).

In order to ensure a suitable composition of the Board at all times, its structure, size and composition shall be analysed whenever a vacancy is available, upon which the relevant procedures for the identification and selection of candidates are executed, according to the analysis and criteria deemed necessary or appropriate.

With every new vacancy, the CED-IADR board will keep the concept of balance in mind.  

The committee proposes a set of essential criteria that should be considered:

• Ensure the stability of the Leuven office with the position of the secretary in Belgium as a robust and stable core of the association.
• Ensure representation of the high membership countries (e.g. Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey).
• Ensure the representation of the other countries (countries with relatively low membership) in a rotating system.
• Consider a balanced representation of all main dental research fields (e.g. DM/Restorative dentistry, Biology/Immunology, Implant/Periodontology, Cariology/Prevention)
• To strive for gender balance
• To strive for balance in age groups/research career
• A rotating system applies whenever one or more criteria cannot be fulfilled at once.
• Candidates must have a permanent university position and should be regular CED-IADR member.

Recommended process steps:

• The committee recommends that new board member(s) vacancies be defined within the board (Research field, country, age, gender). Usually, vacancies should be defined at the Winter Board Meeting (January/February).
• Prepare a vacancy based on the criteria that the board defined.
• Email the vacancy to all members (in March); it is also recommended to publish the CED-IADR website's vacancy and on social media.
• Vacancy should be open for a minimum of 2 months, meaning until End-April.
• Leuven secretariat will collect CVs and motivation letters and will summarise these for the Board (May). If required (in the function of the number of applications), a ‘nomination committee’ may be implemented to do the pre-selection. The CED-IADR Board will decide on the shortlist to be presented to the General Assembly.
• CED-IADR Board will decide on a pre-selection during the Summer Board Meeting at the latest and will propose the candidates for election at the General Assembly.. 
• The pre-selected candidates will be put forward at General Assembly and members can vote.