When I started working with DERP, it was just a mailing list. When DERP became something bigger (press release with logos == the WMF Comm Team's concerns), it needed wider consultation within the WMF. For better or worse, it does not seem like that is a priority right now.
For all intents and purposes, we have our own DERP right here. We have a public mailing list. We support volunteer & external researchers access to data (and we're actively working to make that easier[1]). We hold regular outreach events (like the Research Hackathon @ Wikimania). We're also organizing outreach events with other open ecosystem online communities. For example, we have CSCW'15 workshop proposal submitted, and assuming it is accepted, we'll have participants from Imgur, Reddit and Zooniverse.
-Aaron