Acknowledgements

The GISAID sharing mechanism, the internet platform and its EpiFlu™ database are the result of a global collaboration of experts in their respective disciplines working together to facilitate rapid access to data of influenza viruses and maintaining open access to all.

The agreement governing the terms of access to and use of the GISAID platform was developed over 18-months (December 2006 through May 2008) in consultation with national public health, animal health and relevant governmental authorities, the influenza research community, and commercial developers of medical interventions. The process of defining the core terms and conditions was led by Peter Bogner (Principle Investigator), with counsel provided by leading experts in their professional fields, in particular with outstanding contributions by:

Intellectual Property & Technology

Regulatory & Public Policy

- Mark Abdoo (Global Health Affairs at US Department of Health and Human Services)
- Marie Connett (Cambia - Patent Lens, Canberra Australia)
- Pathom Sawanpanyalert (Ministry of Health, Thailand)
- Endang Sedyaningsih (Ministry of Health, Indonesia)
- Lindsey L. Tonsager (Covington & Burling LLP, Washington D.C.)
- Christoph F. Wetzler (Orrick Hölters Elsing, Frankfurt)

Scientific Policy

- Nancy J. Cox (US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta)
- Rod Daniels (National Institute for Medical Research, London)
- Alan J. Hay (National Institute for Medical Research, London)
- Michael W. Shaw (US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta)

Concept and scientific guidance for the development of v1.0 was provided by:

- Catherine Smith (WHO’CC at US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta) 
- Naomi Komadina (WHO’CC for Reference and Research on Influenza, Melbourne) 
- Rebecca Garten (WHO’CC at US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta) 
- Vicki Gregory (WHO’CC at National Institute for Medical Research, London) 
- Mia Brytting (Swedish National Influenza Center, Stockholm) 
- Alice Fusaro (FAO-OIE Ref Lab at Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Padua) 
- Isabella Monne (Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Padua) 
- Brunhilde Schweiger (Robert-Koch-Institute, Berlin) 

The Max-Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, through its Department of Computational Biology and Applied Algorithmics headed by Thomas Lengauer, was GISAID's first technology partner contributing substantially to the build up of the GISAID platform since 2006.

The development team was led by Joachim Büch, Principle Investigator. Georg Friedrich (back-end development), a3systems Gunter Bach and Ali Djaoui (front-end development), Kirsten Roomp (data curation), Ruth Christmann (administrative support)

Additional Acknowledgements

- Martin Beer (FAO-OIE Ref Lab at Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Greifswald)
- Seiichiro Fujisaki (WHO’CC at National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo)
- Dirk Höper (FAO-OIE Ref Lab at Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Greifswald)
- David Handojo Muljono (Eijkman Institute, Jakarta)  
- Vivi Setiawati (National Institute of Health Research and Development, Jakarta)
- Elke Starick (FAO-OIE Ref Lab at Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Greifswald)
- Thorsten Wolff (Robert-Koch-Institute, Berlin)
- Lan Yu (WHO’CC at China National Influenza Center, Beijing)

- Joachim Büch et al, poster presented at Options for the Control of Influenza VII, Hong Kong 2010