Led by ARF executive vice president of research and standards Bill Cook (pictured), the council has been tasked with identifying and sharing industry best practices, research-on research-and new solutions to quality issues.

It will first address “critical” industry needs such as “better” research being overlooked by faster and cheaper alternatives, the lack of reliable validation for new methods and providing a forum for buyers and sellers of research to collaborate on developing new standards.

Cook and his fellow council members will also provide leadership for the ARF’s recently launched NeuroStandards Collaboration and the association’s other initiatives, such as its online quality project.

The council will be co-chaired by ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni and Donald Gloeckler, Proctor & Gamble’s manager for external scaled solutions.

Gloeckler said: “The research industry is in the midst of an unprecedented period of change, driven by digital technology and rapidly evolving consumer attitudes toward sharing information. The time is right for the ARF to charter this super council as a forum for thought leaders to collaborate in the creation of solutions to the research quality issues required to keep pace with these changes.”

The first RQSC meeting will take place in November when the co-chairs will moderate a discussion about research quality issues. Panellists include Joseph Laszlo, director of research at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Paul Lavrakas, IAB consultant at Northern Arizona University, Josh Chasin, chief research officer at ComScore, William Havlena, vice president of research analytics at Dynamic Logic and Yaakov Kimelfeld, VP of digital research and analytics director at MediaVest.