As a not-for-profit organization federating Swiss bioinformatics, SIB brings together employees and affiliated members from Switzerland’s leading schools of higher education and research institutes. Most of our employees work as part of the SIB Hub, while a third of SIB employees is embedded into affiliated groups where we co-develop a Resource. SIB Members are part of research and service groups from our partner institutions, led by Group Leaders. Our unique governance structure described below ensures a high level of efficiency by embedding solutions into research and leveraging Switzerland’s network of bioinformatics competences. 

A bird’s eye view of our organization

 

 

SIB organization in 2023

Foundation Council

Highest authority in the institute, with supervisory powers, the Foundation Council’s responsibilities include changes to SIB’s statutes, nomination of Group Leaders, and approval of the annual budget and financial report. 

It includes representatives of SIB’s partner institutions.

President

  • Mrs Simone de Montmollin, Member of the National Council.

Founding members

  • Prof. Ron Appel, former SIB Executive Director;
  • Prof. Amos Bairoch, Group Leader, SIB and University of Geneva;
  • Dr Philipp Bucher, Group Leader, SIB and EPFL;
  • Prof. Denis Hochstrasser, former Vice Rector, University of Geneva;
  • Prof. C. Victor Jongeneel, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, USA;
  • Prof. Manuel Peitsch, Honorary Professor, University of Basel.

Ex officio members

  • Prof. Hugues Abriel, Vice Rector for Research, University of Bern;
  • Prof. Cezmi A. Akdis, Director, Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF);
  • Mr Thomas Baenninger, Chief Financial Officer, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR);
  • Prof. Claudia Bagni, Vice Dean for Research and Innovation, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne;
  • Prof. Thomas Bieber, Director, Cardio-CARE AG;
  • Prof. Edouard Bugnion, Vice President for Information Systems, EPFL;
  • Prof. Emmanuele Carpanzano, Director, Department of Innovative Technologies, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI);
  • Prof. Carlo Catapano, Director, IOR Institute of Oncology Research;
  • Prof. Andrea Cavallaro, Director, IDIAP;
  • Prof. Estelle Doudet, Vice Rector "Research", University of Lausanne;
  • Prof. Katharina Fromm, Vice Rector, University of Fribourg;
  • Prof. Cem Gabay, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva;
  • Prof. Patrick Gagliardini, Vice Rector for Research at the Universita della Svizzera italiana (USI);
  • Prof. Brigitte Galliot, Vice Rector, University of Geneva;
  • Prof. Antoine Geissbühler, Head of eHealth and Telemedicine Division, Geneva University Hospital (HUG);
  • Prof. Jérôme Lacour, Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Geneva;
  • Dr Vincent Peiris, Dean, School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD), HES-SO;
  • Prof. Jean-Marc Piveteau, President, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW);
  • Prof. Alexandre Reymond, Centre for Integrative Genomics (CIG), Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne;
  • Prof. Davide F. Robbiani, Director, Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB);
  • Prof. Patrick Ruch, Head of Research, School of Business Administration (HEG-Geneva), HES-SO;
  • Prof. Gebhard Schertler, Division Head of Biology and Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI);
  • Prof. Falko Schlottig, Director, FHNW School of Life Sciences;
  • Prof. Dirk Schübeler, Co-Director, Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI);
  • Prof. Torsten Schwede, Vice Rector of Research and Talent Promotion, University of Basel;
  • Prof. Elisabeth Stark, Vice President Research, University of Zurich;
  • Prof. Jürg Utzinger, Director, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH);
  • Prof. Dr Christian Wolfrum, Vice President for Research, ETH Zurich.

Co-opted member

  • Prof. Alfonso Valencia, Life Sciences Department Director, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Spain.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors takes the decisions necessary to achieve the aims of the institute, such as validating the strategy and internal procedures, and allocating federal funds to service and infrastructure activities.

It consists of five persons: two Group Leaders elected jointly by the Council of Group Leaders and the Board of Directors, two external members and the Executive Director. Members of the Board are appointed for a renewable five-year period.

  • Dr Jérôme Wojcik (Chairman), Industrial Data Scientist & Entrepreneur;
  • Prof. Christophe Dessimoz, SIB Executive Director;
  • Dr Katja Bärenfaller, Group Leader, SIB and Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF);
  • Ms Marie Owens Thomsen, SVP Sustainability & Chief Economist, IATA;
  • Prof. Robert Waterhouse, Director, SIB Environmental Bioinformatics groups.

Scientific Advisory Board

The Scientific Advisory Board acts as an independent consultative body, providing recommendations to the Board of Directors and the Executive Management. Its main tasks consist of selecting and monitoring services and infrastructure activities, such as the SIB Resources

It is made up of at least five members, who are internationally renowned scientists in the various fields of bioinformatics.

  • Prof. Alfonso Valencia (Chairman), Life Sciences Department Director, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Spain;
  • Prof. Søren Brunak, Founder of the Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark;
  • Prof. Melissa Haendel, Chief Research Informatics Officer and Marsico Chair of Data Science at University of Colorado, USA;
  • Prof. Claudine Médigue, Head of the Laboratory of Bioinformatics Analyses for Genomics and Metabolism (LABGeM), Génoscope & CNRS, Evry, France
  • Prof. Alexey I. Nesvizhskii, Department of Pathology and Department of Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA;
  • Prof. Christine Orengo, Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London, United Kingdom;
  • Prof. Ron Shamir, Computational Genomics Group at the Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Council of Group Leaders

The Council discusses all matters relating to SIB Groups as a whole and proposes new Group Leaders for nomination. The Council also elects its representatives on the Board of Directors. 

It consists of the Group Leaders and the Executive Director.

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SIB Hub

Comprising and headed by SIB Employees, our teams at the SIB Hub harness their expertise to collaborate with external partners and other SIB Groups in activities across our three pillars – Coordination, centre of excellence and Open Resources. The SIB Hub also includes the executive management as well as the specialized support teams who are dedicated to serving SIB's projects and activities.

SIB Groups at the Hub

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Support and Executive Management teams 

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  • Biodata resources: coordinates the portfolio of SIB Resources, from selection to key indicators monitoring and dedicated support. 

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  • Communications and scientific events: ensures the transmission to scientific audiences and society of the advances made possible by the science of biological and biomedical data. 

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  • Finance and grants management: manages allocated funds, including reporting to funders and advising Principal Investigators on financial management of grants. 

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  • Information Technology: builds reliable technology platforms to ensure secure and seamless access to information resources and high-quality technology services. 

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  • Legal and technology transfer: ensures compliance of SIB and transfer of its knowledge to partners and provides skilled support for biomedical research. 

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  • People and culture: nurtures an inclusive, respectful and stimulating working culture in which employees offer their best while developing themselves. 

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  • Executive management: defines and implements the institute's strategic goals as well as the organization’s representation at the national and international level. 

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