The GISAID Initiative receives administrative support from Freunde von GISAID e.V. a registered non-profit association, organized and operated exclusively for charitable, scientific and educational purposes. The GISAID Initiative's activities are governed by several organizational bodies that operate independently of each other.
One critical element to the success of the GISAID Initiative is its ability to provide for a fair and transparent, as well as a verifiable and unbiased mechanism not only to govern, but to take measures and guard against bias in decision-making, preserving scientific independence.
The Executive Board of Freunde von GISAID e.V. charged with overseeing the business affairs, is expected to minimize potential conflicts of interest concerning the funding sources. The combination of public and private funding from a number of entities is expected to give GISAID a degree of independence from individual and national interests that is viewed favorably by many in the scientific community and Governments alike.
The Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) comprises leading influenza scientists with expertise in epidemiology, human and veterinary virology and bioinformatics. Its members promote GISAID’s scientific mission by fostering interaction among members of the veterinary and human health communities and capacity building in developing countries, and in ensuring future technological development of the GISAID platform.
The Database Technical Group (DTG) comprises experts in human and veterinary microbiology and bioinformatics with expertise in genetic sequencing and data analysis of influenza viruses. In addition to providing feedback to the GISAID user community, the DTG provides advice to GISAID′s database developers on questions of a scientific & technical nature leading to improvements in the functional capabilities of the EpiFlu™ Database. Members of the DTG regular take part in GISAID Training Workshops to provide educational courses.
| Prof. Dr. Ian Barr Deputy Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza Peter Doherty Institute for Infection & Immunity Melbourne, Australia | Dr. John W. McCauley (Co-Chair) Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza The Francis Crick Institute London, United Kingdom |
| Prof. Dr. Ian Brown Director, OIE/FAO International Reference Laboratory for Animal Influenza Animal and Plant Health Agency Weybridge, United Kingdom | Prof. Dr. Yuelong Shu Director, Institute of Pathogen Biology Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Beijing, Peoples Republic of China |
| Prof. Dr. Ron A.M. Fouchier (Co-Chair) Molecular Virology Director, National Influenza Center Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands | Prof. Dr. Sylvie van der WERF Head of the Molecular Genetics of RNA Viruses Unit Director, National Influenza Center Institut Pasteur Paris, France |
Prof. Dr. George Fu Gao | Dr. Richard J. Webby |
| Prof. Dr. med Hideki Hasegawa Director, WHO Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Influenza Director, Influenza Virus Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases Tokyo, Japan | Dr. David E Wentworth |
Dr. Sebastian Maurer-Stroh | Dr. med Wenqing Zhang (OBSERVER) Head of the Global Influenza Programme World Health Organization Geneva, Switzerland |
| Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Thomas C. Mettenleiter President, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute OIE/FAO Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza Federal Institute for Animal Health Greifswald, Germany |
| Prof. Dr. Trevor Bedford Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division Public Health Sciences Division Seattle, United States | Dr. Rebecca J. Kondor WHO Collaborating Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Control of Influenza Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Atlanta, United States |
| Dr. Joachim Büch Max-Planck-Institut for Informatics Computational Biology and Applied Algorithmics Saarbrücken, Germany | Dr. Isabella Monne OIE/FAO Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie Legnaro (Padua), Italy |
| Dr. Seiichiro Fujisaki WHO Collaborating Center for Influenza National Institute of Infectious Diseases Tokyo, Japan | Prof. Dr. Richard Neher Biozentrum of the University of Basel Computational Modeling of Biological Processes Basel, Switzerland |
| Dr. Monica Galiano WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza The Francis Crick Institute London, United Kingdom | Dr. Vivi Setiawaty WHO National Influenza Center National Institute of Health, Research & Development Jakarta, Indonesia |
| Naomi Komadina (Co-Chair) WHO Collaborating Centre for Influenza (VIDRL) Peter Doherty Institute for Infection & Immunity Melbourne, Australia | Catherine B. Smith, VSDB OBC (Co-Chair) |
Dr. Andrey B. Komissarov | Benjamin Turner Advanced Genomics QIAGEN Bioinformatics Aarhus, Denmark |
| Dr. Yu Lan WHO Collaborating Center for Influenza Chinese National Influenza Center Beijing, Peoples Republic of China | Dr. Thorsten Wolff WHO National Influenza Center Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses Robert Koch Institute Berlin, Germany |
