On October 29 took place the first meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of VHIR that counted with 14 of its 19 members. After visiting the facilities of Collserola Building, they received the institutional greeting from three representatives of VHIR's Board of Trustees, Dra. Marta Aymerich, head of research at the Health Department of the Catalan government, Dr. Lluís Rovira, director of the institution CERCA, and Dr. Jose J. Navas, general manager of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital. They presented their respective areas of action to the members of SAB. Dr. Rovira, in addition, explained how CERCA will evalulate VHIR. In this evaluation there must be three members of SAB, who were chosen during the meeting: Dr. Jay A. Fishman, Director of Transplant, Infectious Diseases and Program in immunologically compromised patients, at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Dr. Ruth Duncan, Emeritus Professor at Cardiff's University, and Dr. Francisco Fernández Avilés, The Director of the Institute of Sciences of the Heart (ICICOR) of Valladolid and Chief of the Service of Cardiology at the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital of Madrid.SAB was constituted officially and elected its representation. Dr. Seija Grénman, President of Obstetrics and Gynecology department, Turku University Hospital, Finland, will be the President of SAB, the mentioned Dr. Francisco Fernandez Avilés will be the vice-president and elect president, while Dr. Ernest Arenas, Chief of department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics and Chief of Molecular Neurobiology Research at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, will be the secretary.Once constituted, SAB listened to the institutional presentation of Dr. Joan Comella, VHIR's director, and to the scientific presentation of the areas and groups of the institute by Dr. David García-Dorado, vice-president of the Scientific Internal Council (CCI). After that, SAB members, together with VHIR's Research Executive Committee (CER) debated on the situation of the institute and its present and future aims, strengths and weaknesses. SAB coincided in praising the institutional and scientific results of VHIR, but also that the institute still has lacks in which must work, specially with the distribution of spaces, possible new scientific staff or the difficulties provoked by the economic context. SAB will elaborate a report on all these issues that will arrive to VHIR's Board of Trustees with strategic recommendations in the short and long term.SAB also discussed about the evaluation of VHIR's research groups, a mandate from the Board of Trustees. The evaluation of all the groups will take place during the next year and a half, and will participate SAB members and external experts in the research areas related to the evaluated groups.The Scientific Advisory Board will meet anually and its members will be renewed every three years. Between meeting and meeting they will be work for VHIR with several topics as the evaluation of groups, the CERCA evaluation, VHIR's structure or any reports that the direction or the Board of Trustees could need.