Deadline: 15 April 2026
The WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) is seeking experts to serve as a member of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). This Call for Experts provides information about the advisory group in question, the expert profiles being sought, the process to express interest, and the process of selection.
Background
The Second European Programme of Work 2026–2030 (EPW2) positions technical excellence as core element for future-proofing WHO/Europe, ensuring that its policies, programmes, and partnerships are built upon cutting-edge science, responsive to the evolving needs of Member States and driven by innovation. EPW2 reaffirms the ambition for WHO/Europe to strengthen its position as a regional knowledge hub for health and a driver of health system transformation across the Region. As part of the actions to achieve this ambition, a Scientific Advisory Board will be established to advise the Regional Director on scientific matters, identify knowledge gaps and ensure robust evidence review processes.
Functions of the WHO/Europe Scientific Advisory Board
In its capacity as an advisory body to WHO/Europe, the SAB shall have the following functions:
- Methodological guidance: providing expert advice on the methodologies to be used for evidence generation, synthesis, appraisal, validation and grading to ensure they meet high scientific standards.
- Knowledge gaps: identifying critical knowledge gaps and methodological risks that may hinder the implementation of regional health priorities and the response to evolving health threats.
- Knowledge translation and contextualization: advising on how to translate complex scientific evidence into clear, actionable and feasible policy options that take into account the specific context of diverse Member States.
- Practical evidence formats: advising on the development of user-friendly, concise, actionable evidence outputs that are tailored to the needs of policy makers, and communicate uncertainties, feasibility considerations and implications for diverse health system contexts.
- Capacity-building: developing recommendations for the responsible use of AI and other digital tools in WHO/Europe’s evidence work, for strengthening WHO/Europe’s internal capacities across the full evidence‑to‑policy spectrum.
- Ad-hoc requests: responding to scientific and methodological questions that may arise from WHO/Europe’s technical work.
Operations of the WHO/Europe Scientific Advisory Board
The SAB shall normally meet 2 to 3 times each year. However, WHO/Europe may convene additional meetings. SAB meetings may be held in person (at the WHO /Europe Regional Office in Copenhagen or another location, as determined by WHO/Europe) or virtually, via video or teleconference. The working language of the group will be English.
Who can express interest?
The SAB will be composed of up to 10 members, who collectively represent a broad and multidisciplinary range of technical knowledge, skills and experience relevant to the work of WHO/Europe.
WHO/Europe welcomes expressions of interest from applicants with expertise in or across the following disciplines, but not limited to:
- Health systems and services research; Public health sciences;
- Epidemiology and biostatistics;
- Health economics and health technology assessment (HTA);
- Implementation science and knowledge translation;
- Data science and AI;
- Behavioural and social sciences;
- Human rights law, public health law and bioethics.
Submitting your expression of interest
To register your interest in being considered for the SAB, please submit the following documents by 15 April 2026, 23:59 (CEST) to euSAB@who.int using the subject line “Expression of interest for the WHO/Europe SAB:
- A cover letter, indicating your motivation to apply and how you satisfy the selection criteria. Please note that, if selected, membership will be in a personal capacity. Therefore, do not use the letterhead or other identification of your employer);
- Your curriculum vitae; and
- A signed and completed Declaration of Interests (DOI) form for WHO Experts, available at Declaration of Interests .
After submission, your expression of interest will be reviewed by WHO. Due to an expected high volume of interest, only selected individuals will be informed.
Important information about the selection processes and conditions of appointment
Members of WHO advisory groups (AGs) must be free of any real, potential or apparent conflicts of interest. To this end, applicants are required to complete the WHO Declaration of Interests for WHO Experts, and the selection as a member of a AG is, amongst other things, dependent on WHO determining that there is no conflict of interest or that any identified conflicts could be appropriately managed (in addition to WHO’s evaluation of an applicant’s experience, expertise and motivation and other criteria).
All AG members will serve in their individual expert capacity and shall not represent any governments, any commercial industries or entities, any research, academic or civil society organizations, or any other bodies, entities, institutions or organizations. They are expected to fully comply with the Code of Conduct for WHO Experts ( Code of Conduct ). AG members will be expected to sign and return a completed confidentiality undertaking prior to the beginning of the first meeting.
At any point during the selection process, telephone interviews may be scheduled between an applicant and the WHO Secretariat to enable WHO to ask questions relating to the applicant’s experience and expertise and/or to assess whether the applicant meets the criteria for membership in the relevant AG.
The selection of members of the AGs will be made by WHO in its sole discretion, taking into account the following (non-exclusive) criteria: relevant technical expertise; experience in international and country policy work; communication skills; and ability to work constructively with people from different cultural backgrounds and orientations. The selection of AG members will also take account of the need for diverse perspectives from different regions, especially from low and middle-income countries, and for gender balance.
If selected by WHO, proposed members will be sent an invitation letter and a Memorandum of Agreement. Appointment as a member of an AG will be subject to the proposed member returning to WHO the countersigned copy of these two documents.
WHO reserves the right to accept or reject any expression of interest, to annul the open call process and reject all expressions of interest at any time without incurring any liability to the affected applicant or applicants and without any obligation to inform the affected applicant or applicants of the grounds for WHO's action. WHO may also decide, at any time, not to proceed with the establishment of the AG, disband an existing AG or modify the scope of its work.
WHO shall not in any way be obliged to reveal, or discuss with any applicant, how an expression of interest was assessed, or to provide any other information relating to the evaluation/selection process or to state the reasons for not choosing a member.
WHO/Europe may publish the names and a short biography of the selected individuals on its website.
AG members will not be remunerated for their services in relation to the AG or otherwise. Travel and accommodation expenses of AG members to participate in AG meetings will be covered by WHO in accordance with its applicable policies, rules and procedures.
The appointment will be limited in time as indicated in the letter of appointment.
If you have any questions about this Call for experts, please write to euSAB@who.int well before the applicable deadline.