Starting Groups

Introduction

Membership of IRAC is open to any company producing insecticides or acaricides and operating in any of the three Core Areas: Crop Protection, Plant Biotechnology or Public Health. Representatives must be experienced and influential in the company’s insecticide resistance management matters and willing to actively participate and contribute in progressing the agreed IRAC goals and objectives. They must also agree to follow the IRAC Constitution which includes the Anti-trust guidelines. 

The IRAC International operating structure is managed by an Executive Committee with a Steering Group made up of elected officers and a coordinator and a number of Working Groups and Task Teams. There is also a growing network of local Country and Regional groups.

In addition to company representatives, local experts or interested parties are sometimes invited to join groups either permanently or on an ad hoc basis. Anyone interested in joining one of the existing groups or teams should contact the IRAC International Coordinator via the contact page on the website.

Reason for Starting a New Group

IRAC International performs a central coordinating function primarily involved in the communication, education and training of resistance management strategies. In addition it provides technical support to resistance based projects and participates in various Project Teams. IRAC International encourages the formation of Country Groups to interact with local experts, growers and farmers and to form Project Teams to address local resistance issues. There are currently 11 Country Teams and two Regional Teams (Europe & Asia) but a number of new teams are in the process of being accredited as full IRAC Country Teams  

IRAC Country Team Criteria

Industry groups active in insecticide resistance management are considered to be IRAC Country or Regional Teams, and entitled to use the IRAC name and logo, if they meet the following criteria:

• An IRAC Country Team must follow the IRAC constitution and CLI anti-trust guidelines.
• An IRAC Country Team must be led by a representative from one of the IRAC International or local CropLife affiliate member companies, unless otherwise agreed by the IRAC International Executive Committee.
• An IRAC Country Team is actively open to all IRAC International member companies and encourages non-CLI companies to participate.
• Non-member companies or non-company IRM specialists may participate as non-voting guests.
• An IRAC Country Team is open to tackling all relevant insecticide resistance management issues.
• An IRAC Country Team conducts at least one meeting per year (in-person or by teleconference).
• An IRAC Country Team is required to generate meeting minutes and make them available to IRAC International and other IRAC Country Teams (through posting on the IRAC International website, and ideally translated into English).
• An IRAC Country Team is required to make all published materials accessible to IRAC International and other IRAC Country Teams (through posting on the IRAC International website, and ideally translated into English).

Guide to starting a New IRAC Group

This on-line guide is designed to take you through the various stages and issues that you should think about when setting up a new IRAC group or team where one does not already exist to tackle an existing or new IRM problem. The Guide is divided up into the three areas which can be accessed via the tabs. Where appropriate links are provided to take you to examples of documentation generated by existing groups which can be used as templates for any new group.