Ewan Birney is Deputy Director General of EMBL. He is also Director of EMBL-EBI, and runs a small research group.

Ewan completed his PhD at the Wellcome Sanger Institute with Richard Durbin. In 2000, he became Head of Nucleotide data at EMBL-EBI and in 2012 he took on the role of Associate Director at the institute. He became Director of EMBL-EBI in 2015. In 2020, Ewan became the Deputy Director General of EMBL. In this role, he assists the EMBL Director General in relation to engagement with EMBL Member States and external representation.

Ewan led the analysis of the Human Genome gene set, mouse and chicken genomes and the ENCODE project, focusing on non-coding elements of the human genome. Ewan's main areas of research include functional genomics, DNA algorithms, statistical methods to analyse genomic information (in particular information associated with individual differences in humans and Medaka fish) and use of images for chromatin structure.

Ewan is a non-executive Director of Genomics England, and a consultant and advisor to a number of companies, including Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Cantata Bio. Ewan was elected an EMBO member in 2012, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2015. In 2019, Ewan became a Board Member of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Ewan serves on a number of Scientific Advisory Boards (SABs), including the DKFZ, ICR, OICR, Institute Pasteur and Riken institute.

He has received a number of awards including the 2003 Francis Crick Award from the Royal Society, the 2005 Overton Prize from the International Society for Computational Biology and the 2005 Benjamin Franklin Award for contributions in Open Source Bioinformatics.

Sara Cerdas is a Portuguese medical doctor and a Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and S&D coordinator of the Sub-Committee on Public Health (SANT). She was also vice-president of the Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA) and S&D coordinator of the Special Committee on COVID-19 (COVI). Currently, MEP Cerdas is shadow rapporteur of the proposal for Regulation for the European Health Data Space and main rapporteur of the INI report on Mental Health. She holds a master's degree in Medicine from the University of Lisbon, a postgraduate degree in traveler's medicine from NOVA University Lisbon and a master's degree in Public Health from the Umeå University.

Dr Anna Chioti is the Head of the Division of Pharmacy and Medicines within the Directorate of Health / Ministry of Health Luxembourg. In this position, she is building the national regulatory capacity, while developing the legal and organisational framework of the future Agency for Medicines and Health Products of Luxembourg, focusing on innovative, adaptive and pragmatic regulatory schemes. Medical doctor specialized in GP and in Public Health, with a Master in Business Administration, and a Master in European Legal Studies, her field of expertise ranges from general clinical practice & preventive medicine, public health & clinical research to pharmaceutical & regulatory affairs. Her career track includes clinical experience in ambulatory and hospital setting, as well as several years in the pharmaceutical industry and in academic/public research. Born Greek and Danish and educated in Belgium, she lives in Luxembourg since 2010, where she developed the Clinical and Epidemiological Investigation Centre within the Luxembourg Institute of Health. She managed to build a well-established research unit, bringing in expertise in pharmaceutical and regulatory affairs, while managing numerous clinical research projects, in oncology, infectious diseases, nutrition, diabetes or cardiology. Before joining the Ministry of Health, Dr Chioti was leading the Department of Population Health of the Luxembourg Institute of Health. She is also involved in several national healthcare strategic groups, boards of several professional and scientific societies in Luxembourg and internationally. Since 2022, Dr Chioti is the chair of the Science and Innovation panel of the EU Innovative Health Initiative.