On the 9th of October, 2017, Endo-ERN held its 3rd Steering Committee & Advisory Board meeting. This meeting took place in the LUMC, Leiden, The Netherlands. Most Main Thematic Group (MTG) chairs and Work Package (WP) chairs, all ePAGs, the national coordinator of France and The Netherlands, and the ESPE representative attended.
Coordinator Alberto Pereira opened the meeting by providing all attendees an update on Endo-ERN activities such as the ERN Coordinators group, different grant calls such as the CEF call and EuRRECa, and the report the deliverables for year 1 & 2 were discussed.
All MTG and WP chairs gave short presentations on their activities, both past and upcoming. The theme of workflow coordination was heavily present throughout the meeting. Endo-ERN is the largest of all ERNs (71 members), which leads to a huge challenge in optimal coordination of the communication that is required for initiating and performing all the tasks. Addressing an email to the correct person, and receiving a response from these people proved to be a difficult task. An adjustment of the working procedure was discussed in order to make this process easier.
Many 1st year objectives are well on their way. WP1 Education & Training is analysing the results of a first survey sent out concerning the educational activities in the different member Reference Centres. WP2 E-health & ICT has been busy with the recently approved EuRRECa proposal and composed an advisory board to lead the activities. WP3 Research & Science sent out a questionnaire concerning the existing research activities in the different member Reference Centres.
The MTG chairs gave short presentations about their plans, many chairs indicated that the process of gathering active participants with the appropriate expertise, and instructing them to complete the first tasks had been long and difficult at times. MTG2 Calcium & Phosphate homeostasis has also been in contact with other ERNs to discuss overlapping diseases. Many other MTGs have had meetings with groups of people to discuss the work that needs to be accomplished, but are awaiting answers or further instructions.
The meeting was concluded by Alberto Pereira and the next Steering Committee meeting was set for December.
