Governance & Expertise

In pursuit of the Initiative’s missions, the GISAID Initiative receives administrative support from two registered non-profit organizations, one based in Germany and the other in the United States. Both operated exclusively for charitable, scientific and educational purposes.

The Initiative’s non-profit status are regulated by the German Tax Authority FA Munich, and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Its finances, accounting and multijurisdictional regulatory compliance are overseen by StB. H. Bösling, Moss Adams LLC and Caplin & Drysdale Chartered.

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. To that end, GISAID also receives scientific, technical, and legal support from the individuals serving on its various oversight bodies:

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 GISAID Compliance 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. 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, Evolutionary Genomics of RNA viruses
Virology Department
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 

GISAID Compliance Board

The GISAID Compliance 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. The Compliance Board is comprised of professionals with successful careers as leaders in their respective practice areas, including intellectual property, ethics, privacy, regulatory, international trade compliance and corporate law.

Dr. jur. Francis Gurry
Director General, Ret.
World Intellectual Property Organization
Geneva, Switzerland
Dr. jur. Jörg Paura
Partner, Ret.
DLA Piper
Hamburg, Germany
Dr. jur. Agus Purwadianto
Director General, Ret.
NIHRD, Ministry of Health
Jakarta, Indonesia

Taking shape during the G20 proceedings in 2022 to ensure robust data governance and promote transparency efforts among our partners, the GISAID Compliance Board was formed to help the Initiative achieve its goals and maintain its independent status.

The Compliance Board adds an additional pillar of trust onto GISAID’s
unwavering mission to protect the inherent rights of data generators,
by providing incentives for equity through transparency,
and ensuring a level playing field for the sake of global health security

- Dr. jur. Francis Gurry, Speaker

The GISAID Compliance Board reviews major agreements regarding GISAID's funding and operations. It also oversees data governance matters such as compliance with GISAID’s sharing mechanism to uphold the rights of data submitters via the Database Access Agreement and other obligations regarding data shared via GISAID. This includes reviewing matters involving potential misuse of data, as well as other discrete issues on a case-by-case basis at its discretion.

 

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