The Scientific Advisory Board plays a major role in the process for reviewing and selecting ELIXIR Nodes and provides strategic scientific advice to the ELIXIR Board. The SAB is an independent body, made up of leading experts from around the world. The committee also includes two independent ethics advisors to advise on ethical, legal and social issues related to ELIXIR. The ELIXIR SAB meets twice a year. 

What the SAB does

• Reviews applications for new Nodes and makes recommendations to the ELIXIR Board
• Ensures scientific and technical excellence and relevance (including independent quality assurance)
• Identifies and recommends emerging challenges and opportunities, both within and beyond ELIXIR activities (including specific periodic reviews)
• Carries out periodic scientific reviews of ELIXIR Platforms and Use Cases
• Reports directly to the ELIXIR Board and ELIXIR Director on the results of their scientific reviews of ELIXIR activities

SAB members

• Chair: Dr Doreen Ware
• Vice-Chair: Prof. Philip Bourne

Name	Affiliation
Prof. Philip Bourne (Vice-Chair)	University of Virginia, USA
Prof. Ana Sofia Carvalho	Catholic University of Portugal, Portugal
Dr Jennifer Gardy	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA
Dr Robert Gentleman	Harvard Medical School, USA
Prof. Melissa Haendel	Oregon Health and Science University, USA
Prof. Elina Ikonen	University of Helsinki, Finland
Dr Janet Kelso	Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
Prof. Nicola Mulder	UCT Computational Biology Group (NBN), South Africa
Dr BF Francis Ouellette	Neuro Bioinformatics Core & Tannenbaum Open Science Institute, Canada
Dr Susan E. Wallace	University of Leicester, UK
Dr Doreen Ware (Chair)	USDA ARS, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA