Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
• Implementation
of
all
programs
and
activities
in
the
best
interest
(common interest) of all stakeholders
• Financial accountability for the use of the funds from both industry and
the commission
• To ensure fair and reasonable conditions for optimal knowledge exploita-
tion and dissemination
The governing board is the main decision-making body of the IMI JU and
has overall responsibility for the operations of the undertaking and oversight
of the implementation of its activities, ensuring their alignment with IMI
objectives. The governing board is composed of 10 board members represent-
ing equally the two founding members of the IMI JU: 5 from the European
Commission, representing the European Community, and 5 from EFPIA,
representing the pharmaceutical industry in Europe.
The scientifi c committee provides scientifi c advice to the governing board.
It is currently composed of 15 members and gives strategic science- based
recommendations to the IMI JU, advises on the scientifi c priorities which form
the basis for call topics, and in 2010 led the revision of the strategic research
agenda.
In September 2009, Michel Goldman became the fi rst executive director of
the IMI and has played a critical role in moving the IMI agenda forward. Two
other committees also play an important role in the dissemination of IMI to
all stakeholders and conduits for feedback to the IMI—these are the Member
States Group and the Stakeholder Forum. The aim is very much to use these
bodies both as advocates across Europe for the IMI and to gain feedback on
ways in which IMI procedures and processes could be improved for the future.
4.2.1.2 How IMI Research Process Works
The EFPIA companies discuss
together which topics are important for the next call for research proposals.
These topics are then validated and agreed in discussions with the European
Commission and the scientifi c committee and members of the EFPIA form
consortia to support each call topic. The role of the executive offi ce at this
point is to attract the best partners for the agreed-upon call topics in Europe
by launching a call for proposals for the agreed-upon topics. At this stage the
proposals are known as expressions of interest (EOIs), which are less than 10
pages in length and come from the academic and other non-EFPIA partners—
the aim here is to minimize the amount of work involved at this stage as only
one EOI will be selected for each call topic. The submitted EOIs are then
evaluated by a panel of experts and the best EOI is selected for each topic.
The consortium of academics that submitted this successful EOI then meets
with the respective industrial consortium and the merged consortium works
on the fi nal project proposal. It is at this point that the details of the in-kind
contribution, project management, timelines, deliverables, and any IP consid-
erations are negotiated and written down in a formal project proposal. This is
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