Governance structure

JPI MYBL consists of the following bodies:

• General Assembly (GA) is the governing and decision making body, its members are delegates from all the JPI Member States (MS);
• Steering Committee (SC) is a subcommittee of the GA responsible for day to day and urgent issues;
• Societal Advisory Board (SOAB) advises the GA on societal issues, its members are representatives of European level societal agencies;
• Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) advises the GA on scientific issues, on research priorities and trends, its members are scientific experts in relevant fields of study;
• MYBL Secretariat provides assistance to the GA, SC, SOAB and SAB in all aspects concerning the preparation and implementation of decisions and coordinates contact within and between all bodies of JPI MYBL. The MYBL secretariat is located at ZonMw in the Netherlands.

General Assembly

The General Assembly (GA) is the main decision making body of JPI MYBL and is responsible for the overall coordination, supervision, implementation and progress of the JPI. GA members ensure the political backing of the initiatives from MS and Associated States (AS) and are requested to coordinate with relevant stakeholders in their countries. The GA ensures the visibility of the JPI MYBL and takes also the broadness of the JPI topic into account. The GA is responsible for decision-taking and identifies:

• Public research instruments (regional, national, European and/or global) suitable to realize the objectives;
• Priorities for joint initiatives that will have valuated impact at the European and global level, taking into account pre-existing national, European and global activities;

The GA decides on JPI activities and their implementation and will:

• Develop strategies for international cooperation and coordination;
• Define joint transnational initiatives, based on the defined priorities for joint initiatives;
• Define rules of participation;
• Invite MS and Associated States (AS) to participate in the implementation of joint transnational initiatives (including prior commitment on financing, premised that participation in specific initiatives is voluntarily and follows the principle of variable geometry);
• Facilitate the development of new instruments, where necessary;
• Implement an overarching concept for the dissemination and communication of results from JPI MYBL;
• Interact with other European initiatives, partnerships and programmes or other political bodies of the European Commission and the Council of the European Union.

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee (SC) deals with daily and urgent issues on behalf of the GA. The SC is composed of the GA chair and three elected GA members.

SOAB

The Societal Advisory Board (SOAB) provides advice to the GA with clear orientation on societal dimension and challenges of demographic change. The task of SOAB is to bring the “societal pull” to the research agenda by evaluating joint activities in each phase of their development, implementation and evaluation against societal needs.  This type of collaboration between scientists and a broad spectrum of stakeholders is essential to further develop the SRA so that it can provide knowledge-based solutions for European development.

The SOAB also plays a key role in the general public engagement strategy of the JPI MYBL and supports the JPI in building up national stakeholder involvement through its networks. The SOAB collaborates with Science with and for Society (SwafS) and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) to promote public engagement and stakeholder inclusion in all stages of the research cycle.

SAB

The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) provides scientific advice to the GA and actively contributes to shaping JPI MYBL, securing scientific excellence. The SAB will continuously explore the development in the field of demographic change to update the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA); it will mediate the contacts with the scientific community, both European and international, and suggest initiatives to foster joint programming including the alignment of Research & Development efforts and infrastructures.

The SAB consists of researchers (max. twenty) who are experts in at least one of the four domains of the SRA and should have a balanced presentation of relevant expertise and geographically represent Europe. The GA requests advice from the SAB on their strategic and implementation plans as well as on communication and dissemination of its results.

MYBL secretariat

The MYBL secretariat coordinates contact within and between all JPI MYBL bodies and serves as the central hub for all JPI MYBL activities including development and implementation of strategies and action plans. The MYBL secretariat is located at ZonMw in the Netherlands.