Hi Christabel,
Thank you for your question.
Several ASP-related recommendations from the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (SubPro)
Final Report envisioned a “dedicated Implementation Review Team” (IRT) making certain decisions about the Applicant Support Program, including decisions related to outreach activities, metrics to evaluate success, and allocation of limited financial resources.
My own observation is that the SubPro working group had difficulty coming to agreement on these finer points, and so they were essentially pushed out for a future IRT to resolve.
ICANN org expressed concern that implementing these ASP recommendations would entail empowering an IRT to make policy decisions, which is not the
role of an IRT (rather, they are responsible for helping ICANN org interpret approved community recommendations). So, the GNSO Council
decided to initiate the
GNSO Guidance Process (GGP) for the first (and so far only) time in order to provide guidance on these unclear ASP elements so ICANN org and the IRT group are not misinterpreting or dictating policy. The GGP working group took on the tasks of clarifying
these ASP elements and providing guidance regarding expertise, metrics, outreach, and financial allocation.
I hope this clarification helps. For more specifics, I would encourage you to check out the hyperlinks included above and in
Module 3A, otherwise please feel free to reach out if you have any more questions!
Kind regards,
Christian Wheeler
Policy Development Support Specialist
ICANN
From:
Christabel Mebaghandu <christabel.mebaghandu@ccpjd.org>
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2026 at 2:08 PM
To: "policy-development-accelerator@icann.org" <policy-development-accelerator@icann.org>, Devan Reed <devan.reed@icann.org>
Cc: Carlos Reyes <carlos.reyes@icann.org>, Daniel Gluck <daniel.gluck@icann.org>, Christian Wheeler <christian.wheeler@icann.org>
Subject: [Ext] Re: NEXT WEEK | Meeting Invite | Policy Development Accelerator | 19 February 2026
Dear Devan,
Thank you for referring these materials, they have been very engaging and insightful. My question is regarding the GGP working group. I tried to understand the reasoning behind the WG, but I simply do not, especially
given that the 2022 convening was a pilot and there are no other instances to refer to
(for now).
I'd appreciate any clarity on this, and will send further questions across!
Warm Regards,
Christabel Mebaghandu
From: Devan Reed via policy-development-accelerator <policy-development-accelerator@icann.org>
Sent: Friday, 13 February 2026 15:55
To: policy-development-accelerator@icann.org <policy-development-accelerator@icann.org>
Cc: Carlos Reyes <carlos.reyes@icann.org>; Daniel Gluck <daniel.gluck@icann.org>; Christian Wheeler <christian.wheeler@icann.org>; Devan Reed <devan.reed@icann.org>
Subject: [policy-development-accelerator] NEXT WEEK | Meeting Invite | Policy Development Accelerator | 19 February 2026
Hi Accelerator Participants,
I hope all is well. Next week we will be holding a Role Play on the topic of the Criteria for Applicant Support.
We covered the topic in Term 1. If you need to review the content you can find more information here:
https://icann-community.atlassian.net/wiki/x/MwAmG [icann-community.atlassian.net]
Please reach out to the mailing list
policy-development-accelerator@icann.org with questions. If you have a question, I am sure others do too!
I am looking forward to our discussion.
Thank you
Kind regards,
Devan
Dear all,
The Policy Development Accelerator session is scheduled for Thursday, 19 February 2026 at 13:00 UTC for 60 minutes.
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://icann.zoom.us/j/95345481555?pwd=TXJTMWJJeDd0ZlZxSXpHeUoxRm5rQT09
Meeting ID: 953 4548 1555
Passcode: n%EJ!g3$Y.
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,95345481555#,,,,*3123531579# US (Chicago)
+19294362866,,95345481555#,,,,*3123531579# US (New York)
Meeting ID: 953 4548 1555
Passcode: 3123531579
Find your local number: https://icann.zoom.us/u/aWh1Qhe0x
Thank you!
Kind regards,
Devan