Meet the New EUPATI Management Team!

The five-year EUPATI project funded under the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) ended in January 2017, a “new” EUPATI programme is moving forward under the direction of EPF and a newly-formed EUPATI Management Team. Time has come for an official introduction!

The European Patients’ Academy (EUPATI) is a pan-European project implemented as a public-private partnership by a collaborative multi-stakeholder consortium from the pharmaceutical industry, academia, not-for-profit, and patient organisations. EUPATI focuses on education and training to increase the capacity and capability of patients to understand and contribute to medicines research and development and to improve the availability of objective, reliable, patient-friendly information for the public.

Role of the new team

The new team will take on the overall programme coordination, including the supervision of the editorial and contents team members, the National Platforms’ network, and the response to requests from external stakeholders. The new team will also contribute to communications and outreach activities, making sure this flagship programme gets the visibility it deserves!

You will find some familiar faces from the existing EUPATI network. Scroll down and meet the EUPATI team.

Programme Coordinator: Matthew May

Matthew has been part of EUPATI since the very beginning of the IMI-EUPATI Project, serving on the EUPATI Editorial Board and developing and managing Course contents. In his new role as the Programme Coordinator, Matthew will oversee all the overall coordination and day-to-day work of the EUPATI Programme. This includes daily operations, financial management, coordination of the operational teams, and coordination and support of the governance committees.

Programme Officer: Danielle Flores

Danielle has been part of the EUPATI team since 2014, serving as a Course Adviser to the EUPATI Expert Training Course trainees, as a member of the Course Committee, and supporting with the Course implementation and the development and logistics of the Face-to-Face training events in Barcelona. In her new role as Programme Officer, Danielle will continue to oversee the support of trainees in the Expert Training Course as well as collaborating with Matthew on the day to day programme work and with the Face-to-Face Coordinator on the future training events.

Communications Manager: Tamás Bereczky

Tamás from the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) has been involved with EUPATI since 2015 and has supported with communications and social media and with the development of the Face-to-Face training events. He has also acted as a dynamic trainer and group facilitator at the Barcelona face-to-face events. In his new role as Communications Manager, Tamás will coordinate all aspects of programme communications including social media channels, the EUPATI newsletter, public speaking engagements on behalf of the programme, the EUPATI website, and scientific journal articles under EUPATI authorship.

Face-to-face Course Coordinator: Ingrid Heyne

Ingrid Heyne, from the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP), has been involved with EUPATI since the very beginning of the IMI project, organising events including the EUPATI Annual General Meetings and serving as a Course Adviser to the EUPATI Expert Training Course. In her new role as Face-to-Face Course Coordinator, Ingrid will coordinate the preparation and implementation of the training event in Barcelona, will liaise with the Editorial Board on training materials and content, and will also coordinate the Course Selection Committee.

ENP Coordinator: Gemma Killeen

Central coordination for the EUPATI National Platforms (ENP) remains crucial for the sustainability of EUPATI’s achievements, to continue and expand the dissemination and use of the EUPATI Toolbox and capacity building at the national level. Since 2014, EUPATI consortium partner IPPOSI (Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry) has provided central coordination of the ENPs and will continue this role in the EUPATI Programme. Gemma Killeen from IPPOSI, as ENP Coordinator, is new to the EUPATI team and will help establish and grow national networks of patients, academic and industry representatives across Europe.

EUPATI Futures Group Chair: Jan Geissler

Jan Geissler served as Director of the EUPATI project under IMI and will continue to be involved in a new role as the Chair of the EUPATI Futures Group. In order to secure long-term sustainability of the EUPATI Programme the EUPATI Futures team will perform a “business development” role, e.g. to evaluate and develop concepts around the extension of EUPATI activities towards new areas like paediatrics, geriatrics, and general future topic recommendations; leveraging opportunities in other regions, e.g. an American ’US-PATI’ programme or the development of FDA-related content, and assessing additional funding sources for the programme.