(1) The presidents of the University of Washington and Washington State University shall jointly form and serve as the cochairs of an organizing committee for the purpose of creating the Washington academy of sciences as an independent entity to carry out the purposes of this chapter. The committee should be representative of appropriate disciplines from the academic, private, governmental, and research sectors.

     (2) Staff from the University of Washington and Washington State University, and from other available entities, shall provide support to the organizing committee under the direction of the cochairs.

     (3)(a) The committee shall investigate organizational structures that will ensure the participation or membership in the academy of scientists and experts with distinction in their fields, and that will ensure broad participation among the several disciplines that may be called upon in the investigation, examination, and reporting upon questions referred to the academy by the governor or the legislature.

     (b) The organizational structure shall include a process by which the academy responds to inquiries from the governor or the legislature, including but not limited to the identification of research projects, past or present, at Washington or other research institutions and the findings of such research projects.

     (4) The committee cochairs shall use their best efforts to form the committee by January 1, 2006, and to complete the committee's review by April 30, 2007. By April 30, 2007, the committee, or such individuals as the committee selects, shall file articles of incorporation to create the academy as a Washington independent organizational entity. The articles shall expressly recognize the power and responsibility of the academy to provide services as described in RCW 70.220.040 upon request of the governor, the governor's designee, or the legislature. The articles shall also provide for a board of directors of the academy that includes distinguished scientists from the range of disciplines that may be called upon to provide such services to the state and its political subdivisions, and provide a balance of representation from the academic, private, governmental, and research sectors.

     (5) The articles shall provide for all such powers as may be appropriate or necessary to carry out the academy's purposes under this chapter, to the full extent allowable under the proposed organizational structure.

[2005 c 305 § 3.]