Governance & Expertise

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 element critical to the Initiative’s success is its independent, horizontal operational structure. This fair, transparent, and verifiable structure enables GISAID to fulfill its mission through a collaborative global network of partner institutions while taking measures that prevent conflicts of interest, guard against biased decision-making, and preserves scientific independence.

The Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) advises and supports the Initiative in pursuit of its public health and scientific objectives. Its members are leading scientists with expertise in virology, microbiology, computational and molecular biology, epidemiology, evolutionary genomics and bioinformatics, and public health or animal-health. The SAC promotes GISAID’s scientific mission by fostering interaction among members of the veterinary and human health communities and capacity building in developing countries. Members of the SAC are appointed by GISAID's SAC Nomination Committee, which is composed of three individuals of esteem in the scientific community.

Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, France
Prof. Francine Ntoumi, Republic of the Congo
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, India

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The Database Technical Group (DTG) comprises experts in human and veterinary microbiology, and evolutionary genomics with expertise in genetic sequencing and pathogen data analysis. In addition to providing feedback to the GISAID user community, the DTG provides scientific and technical advice to GISAID′s database developers to support ongoing improvements to GISAID’s platforms. Members of the DTG also regularly lead GISAID Training Workshops as distinguished faculty.

The Legal Compliance and Audit Board is tasked to advise and support the Initiative in pursuit of its public health and scientific objectives. It is further designed to advise individual partners of the GISAID Initiative on compliance matters, upon request, and where appropriate, review compliance-related decisions.

Scientific Advisory Council

Prof. Dr. Ron A.M. Fouchier (Vice-Chair)
Molecular Virology
Director, National Influenza Center
Erasmus Medical Center
Rotterdam, Netherlands

Prof. Dr. Priya Abraham 
Department of Clinical Virology 
Christian Medical College 
Vellore, India 

Prof. Dr. med Hideki Hasegawa
Director, WHO Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Influenza
National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Tokyo, Japan

Dr. Irma López Martínez
Director, WHO Collaborating Center for Arboviruses
Instituto de Diagnóstico y Referencia Epidemiológicos
Mexico City, Mexico

Dr. Bette Korber
Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos, New Mexico
United States of America

Prof. Dr. Nicola Lewis
Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
The Francis Crick Institute
London, United Kingdom

Prof. Dr. Raymond Lin Tzer Pin
Director, National Public Health Laboratory
National Centre for Infectious Diseases
Singapore

Prof. Dr. Tulio de Oliveira
Director, Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch, South Africa

Prof. Dr. Amadou Alpha Sall
Director General
Institut de Pasteur in Dakar
Dakar, Senegal

Dr. Etienne Simon-Loriere
Director, Virology Department
Director, National Influenza Center
Institut Pasteur
Paris, France

Dr. Marilda Mendonça Siqueira
Director, WHO National Influenza Center and WHO Measles Regional Reference Laboratory
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dr. med Dayan Wang
Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
Chinese Center for Disease Control
Beijing, Peoples Republic of China
Dr. med Wenqing Zhang
(OBSERVER)
Head of the Global Influenza Programme
World Health Organization
Geneva, Switzerland

Dr. Cédric Mahé
(OBSERVER)
Head, Modeling, Epidemiology and Data Science
Sanofi Pasteur
Lyon, France

Terms of Reference

Former Members of the Scientific Advisory Council

Database Technical Group and Faculty

Dr. Joachim Büch
Max-Planck-Institut for Informatics Computational Biology and Applied Algorithmics
Saarbrücken, Germany
Dr. Seiichiro Fujisaki
WHO Collaborating Center for Influenza
National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Tokyo, Japan

Dr. Naomi Komadina
ret. WHO Collaborating Centre for Influenza
(VIDRL) Peter Doherty Institute for Infection & Immunity
Melbourne, Australia

Dr. Andrey B. Komissarov
WHO National Influenza Centre
Research Institute of Influenza
Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation

Dr. Krista Queen
Viral Genomics and Surveillance
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
Shreveport, United States

Catherine B. Smith, VSDB OBC
WHO Collaborating Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Control of Influenza
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Atlanta, United States

Dr. Gabriel Luz Wallau
Departamento de Entomologia e Núcleo de Bioinformática
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ
Recife, Brazil

Dr. Lan Yu
WHO Collaborating Center for Influenza
Chinese National Influenza Center
Beijing, Peoples Republic of China

Former Members of the Database Technical Group 

 
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