Join
The Alliance accepts both organizational and individual memberships from all constituents in the life science R&D space.
Pistoia Alliance members work through vertical, cross-industry working groups that tailor the platform and ensure the overall goals and aims of the Alliance are reflected in working group projects. Member companies determine how and when the Pistoia Alliance standards and specifications will be initiated, upgraded, expanded and enhanced through participation in the Pistoia Alliance Board of Directors.
Three membership levels are available:
- Contributing members gain entry-level access to the Pistoia Alliance and an opportunity to get involved in Alliance working groups. Contributing members have the right to appoint one voting representative to the technical committee and relevant Alliance working groups, propose initiatives, attend general meetings, receive Alliance publications, and display their logo on the Alliance web site.
- Participating members gain additional rights that help them set direction and priorities for the Alliance. Along with the benefits associated with contributing membership, participating members have the right to participate in Alliance elections, nominate representatives to chair Alliance subgroups, engage in co-marketing opportunities, and receive priority access to technical assistance and other Alliance services.
- Core members have the most influence on Alliance activities. The highest level of membership provides additional rights to designate one representative to serve on the Board of Directors, nominate representatives to serve on the operational team, and provide candidates for other leadership positions in the Alliance. Each core member must be a business entity with a clear business focus in the life sciences.
Interested learning more about membership? Read our FAQs. Or, if you want to get started on the membership process now, complete our web-based membership form and one of our representatives will guide you through the process.
The Pistoia Alliance helps many different types of organizations lower barriers to innovation. Click to see how we help
- Life science R&D organizations
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The Pistoia Alliance helps life science R&D organizations by:
- Identifying common requirements, use cases and “pain points”
- Reducing the cost of non-discretionary information systems
- Providing services that can be rapidly deployed and integrated to streamline data interchange and analysis
- Conducting feasibility studies to evolve more efficient and innovative R&D business models
- Enabling future innovation by promoting interoperability and exploiting open standards
- Information-based solution providers
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The Pistoia Alliance helps information-based solution providers by:
- Offering a collaborative environment for exploring emerging markets and business models
- Lowering the cost and risks associated with entering new markets
- Providing standards, common vocabularies, and processes that reduce the need for customized solutions
- Enabling the development of innovative, open solutions that lead to sustainable and successful business models with more satisfied customers
- Content suppliers and publishers
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The Pistoia Alliance helps content suppliers including publishers by:
- Creating different options for accessing content through the use of open standards
- Fostering discussion of different business models for delivering content, including licensing
- Opening up content for exploitation through the use of semantic technologies aligned to business needs.
Membership FAQs
- Can anyone join the Pistoia Alliance?
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We welcome members from any constituents in life science R&D, either as organizations or groups or as individual contributors. If you choose to join as an individual, however, we need to ensure that the contributions that you make to the Alliance have the correct permissions and sign off from your employer (whether your organization is a member of the Alliance or not). For this reason, we require all potential members to complete a hard copy membership application. We’ll send that you once you complete our web membership form.
- I work for a life science company. What membership options do I have?
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First, check to see whether your organization is already a member of the Alliance. If so, and you are not already tapped into Alliance activities, subscribe to our newsletter, monitor our blog, or contact us or your board representative to determine other ways to get involved.
If your organization is not a member, you should encourage it to join the Alliance. Life science organizations, information-based solution providers, and content suppliers can all benefit from the precompetitive collaboration available as Pistoia Alliance members. Contact us for further advice on how to talk to your employer about membership.
- My company has a complicated corporate structure. Who do I contact about membership?
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We have other members with exactly this situation that we have successfully helped to join Pistoia. Our legal advisors frequently work with company representatives to explain the process and help them secure appropriate permissions. Please contact us and one of our advisors will be happy to work with you..
- I work for a university. How can I join?
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Individuals or university and academic groups are welcome to join the alliance. If you think other members of your department would also be interested in participating in Pistoia Alliance activities, contact your department head about the intellectual property and legal ramifications of membership. If more than one department as a university joins the Alliance, we will merge the memberships into a single membership to ensure fairness of representation and voting rights with the Alliance. When your department is ready to apply, complete the web form and we’ll send the application to you.
If you would like to join as an individual you will need to clarify whether you will solely be representing yourself or also representing your employer. Think of Pistoia as similar to an open source project and ask whether the contributions that you make to Pistoia will be made on behalf of your employer or yourself as an individual. If you are sure that you can make these contributions as an individual, then complete the web form and one of our representatives will send you the application to complete and return.
- How does an individual membership differ from an organizational membership?
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Individual members contribute to the Pistoia Alliance solely on their own behalf; contributions are not associated with their employers. Individual costs of membership are the same as for organizations since the benefits are the same for both parties. We recommend individuals join at the Contributing level to get a taste for how the Alliance works and get involved in aspects related to their work.
- How does the Alliance handle intellectual property?
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The Alliance has an established policy on intellectual property rights that aims to protect the IP of the Alliance and its members equally. Every member retains ownership of its patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Conversely, the Alliance retains the rights necessary to allow the broad distribution of any standards created by working groups without infringing the rights of members or non-members. Our policy is based on policies adopted by dozens of other standards organizations aiming to create open source solutions and includes reasonable protections and exceptions for different situations that may incur in the development of Alliance outputs. Contact us for more information on the specific policies and how it applies to your organization.