Take part
A specification nobody helped shape is a specification nobody adopts. Everything below is a real route in, open now, with no membership, no fee and no account.
We are aware of the obvious objection: a company asking an industry to help build the thing it intends to operate. The answer is in how it is governed. The specification is openly licensed, the vocabulary is versioned in public, proposed changes and their outcomes are published, and the science committee that will own these decisions holds the votes we do not.
If that is not sufficient, say so. That is also participation.
Join the waitlist
Common Measure launches in 2027. Leave your details and we will write before then.
01 · ROUTES IN
Six ways to take part
- 01
Comment on a draft
Free foreverEvery part of the specification goes out for public comment before it takes effect. Comments are published alongside the outcome, including the ones we did not act on and why. There is no requirement to be an expert, an organization, or a customer.
Reading a draft and writing as much or as little as you want to.
See what is open for comment → - 02
Join the cross-laboratory study
Free foreverThe study is the evidence base for the whole specification: split samples, multiple laboratories, one published comparison. We are looking for laboratories that compete with each other, because a study run only with friendly partners would not be believed — including by us. Participating laboratories are named as contributors on the published result, see the protocol before it is finalized, and receive their own data first.
We are aware of what we are asking. A laboratory that takes part is spending real capacity on a study that may show variation it would rather not have published. We think that is the single most valuable contribution anyone can make to this field right now, and we will say so publicly and by name.
A defined number of samples processed on your normal workflow, and permission to publish the anonymized comparison.
Register interest → - 03
Propose a vocabulary change
Free foreverThe vocabulary is versioned and open to challenge. If a definition is imprecise, missing, or quietly settles a question the field has not actually settled, tell us. Proposals and their outcomes are published whether or not we adopt them.
One paragraph naming the term and the problem.
Propose a change → - 04
Tell us what would make this useless to you
Free foreverThe most valuable thing anyone has told us so far is where the thesis breaks. If you think a shared reference frame will not work, or will not be adopted, or solves the wrong problem, we would rather hear it now than after the specification is written.
An email. We reply to all of them.
Tell us where it breaks → - 05
Bring a database or program requirement
Free foreverA detection that cannot enter the database a regulator consults does not change any decision. If you maintain a database, or run a program whose results have to reach one, the format and evidentiary requirements you need are the requirements our specification should meet.
A conversation, and ideally a specification we can build against.
Get in touch →See what we have mapped so far → - 06
Work with us inside a formal standards process
Free foreverWe would rather contribute to formal standards work than run alongside it. If you sit on a committee, a working group or a technical advisory group touching environmental DNA, we would like to know how to contribute properly — and where our specification duplicates something already underway, we would rather retire ours than compete with it.
Telling us which body, which committee, and how an outside party takes part.
Get in touch →
02 · PROCESS
What happens to what you send
Participation only means something if there is a visible path from a comment to a change. This is that path:
- 01
Received
Every submission is logged and acknowledged, usually within two business days.
- 02
Published
Comments on open drafts are published with the commenter's name and organization, or anonymously on request.
- 03
Assessed
Proposals are assessed against the specification's scope. Anything outside scope is declined with the reason stated.
- 04
Decided
Decisions currently rest with Common Measure. On formation of the science committee, they pass to it, and we hold no vote.
- 05
Recorded
The outcome is published in the change record, including proposals that were declined.
Declined proposals are published too. A register that only shows agreement is not a register.
03 · COMMITMENTS
What participating does not commit you to
This section exists to remove the reasons people hesitate:
No exclusivity.
Taking part does not restrict who else you work with, now or later.
No cost.
There is no membership, no fee, and no paid tier of participation.
No data rights.
Contributing to the study does not give us rights over your data beyond the specific comparison you agreed to publish.
No obligation to adopt.
You can help shape our specification and then decide not to use it. That is a legitimate outcome and it tells us something.
No routing.
Taking part does not place you in a directory, a marketplace, or a referral queue. There is no such thing here.
Objections welcome
We are earlier than we are polished. The most useful thing anyone can do right now is tell us what is wrong with this before it hardens into a specification.
Get in touch