[Claire Austin]

Dear colleagues,
After much thought and discussion, and in consultation with Hillary and Simon, we are writing to inform you that we have taken the very difficult decision to close the Working Group RDA/CODATA Epidemiology common standard for surveillance data reporting WG and cancel the related plenary session Building a standard profile for reporting surveillance data to prevent and manage epidemics.
Simply put, the WG does not have sufficient capacity to move forward with this very important work at this time.
In order to preserve the interest and expertise gathered thus far, we invite you to join the RDA Community of Practice (CoP) for Infectious Diseases Data with which there may be some overlap and to attend that Plenary Session in April. We will share with the CoP the valuable development work that you have contributed so far in the event that it is relevant to the goals of the CoP.
This should not in any way be interpreted as an indication that we wish to distance ourselves from you, this work, CODATA or the RDA, or as implying that your work and commitment until now has been in some way lacking – quite the opposite. We wish to emphasize our heartfelt appreciation of you as well as CODATA and the RDA, and of the tremendously valuable work that you and these organizations accomplish.
We plan to continue supporting CODATA and the RDA in their work and we hope to have the privilege of working with you again in the near future.
Sincerely yours,
Claire and Rajini

Discussion