The structure of the alliance is based on a Board of Directors, a Strategy group, several Working groups & Task forces and the EU-LIFE Office.
Board of Directors
Each member is represented in EU-LIFE by its Director or Scientific Director. The Board of Directors (BoD) is the highest decision-making body of the alliance. The BoD elects two of its members to serve as a Chair and a Co-chair for a period of two years. Currently, Mónica Bettencourt Dias from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) is acting as Chair and Giulio Superti-Fuga from the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences as Co-Chair.
EU-LIFE Office
The EU-LIFE Office is located in Barcelona, Spain. The EU-LIFE Executive Director, Marta Agostinho, is the head of the Office and is responsible for strategy development with the BoD, and the implementation and centralisation of all activities. The EU-LIFE Office also consists of the Policy Officer Iris Uribesalgo, the Community Officer Marijn Huiskamp, the Communications Officer Esther Dorado, and the Executive Assistant Isabel Jurado.
Strategy group
The Strategy group gathers the BoD, the EU-LIFE Executive Director, the main representatives and the Working groups chairs (see below). This group focuses on general questions concerning EU-LIFE organisation and strategic actions, such as strategic and action plan, policy development, consideration of new partners, staffing and internal meetings.
Working groups & Task forces
The different activities of the alliance are carried out by dedicated Working groups, formed by experts from the member institutions. Each Working group elects a Chair, who sits together with the Strategy group twice a year to review all activities. There are currently seven active Working groups: Science Communication, Technology Transfer, Core Facilities, Gender Equality, Grants & Funding strategies, Recruitment & Training, and IT.
The Task forces are smaller groups bringing together a specific set of EU-LIFE experts to accomplish a short-term assignment. There are four Task forces currently running by now: Indicators & publications, Research Assessment, Research Infrastructures and Research Data Management.