Thank you and goodbye to six members of our HIF Advisory Group

At the end of March, we say farewell to six long-standing and highly valued members of our Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) Advisory Group, who have reached the end of their membership tenure.They are:

• Samir Doshi, Senior Technology and Innovation Advisor, World Wildlife Fund
• Jim Maltby, Principal Scientist in the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, UK Ministry of Defence
• Robin Mays, Humanitarian Research Consultant and Affiliate Assistant Professor, Department of Human-Centered Design & Engineering, University of Washington
• Kristin Sandvik, Research professor in humanitarian studies, PRIO; Professor, Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo
• Meg Sattler, Director, Ground Truth Solutions
• Nigel Snoad, Product Manager Verily, Alphabet

Some of these individuals have supported our HIF programme since its inception in 2011 and were ‘pioneer’ members of our Advisory Group.All have given at least three years of commitment, advice and expert support and we want to thank each of them for the difference they’ve made.It would be impossible to share all of the support they have given but it includes specialist advice from their areas of expertise, working on priority or evolving areas of interest for the HIF, wider engagement on HIF programme review (including feeding into the 2016 independent HIF Evaluation) and strategic planning (culminating in the HIF strategic plan for 2018-20). They have challenged the HIF programme, acted as a critical friend, and helped individual HIF team members with ‘problem’ areas related to their portfolio and work.We will miss their individual and collective contributions to our HIF Advisory Group meetings and discussions.We cannot thank them enough for their time and commitment and hope that our relationship will continue long into the future, as we develop ideas and plans for an ‘Elrha Alumni’!