The EBC held the 1st Meeting of its Board and Industry Board in 2016 in Brussels on 17th and 18th February. On this occasion, delegates from EBC’s member organisations and industry partners discussed the ongoing activities and plans for the months to come.

In regard to EBC’s Governance arising from the new Statutes approved in November 2015, elections were organized for a new Executive. The new Executive of EBC is now composed of the following members:

  • David Nutt ……………………………………………………. President
  • Monica Di Luca ……………………………………… Vice-President
  • Patrice Boyer………………………………………….. Vice-President
  • Wolfgang Oertel ……………………………………………. Treasurer

The following issues were also addressed:

Consensus Document on Brain Research in Europe: The new “Consensus Document on Brain Research in Europe”, which was unanimously approved by the Board of EBC in November 2015, is about to be presented to the public. For that purpose, everybody was invited to participate in the Launch event on the 18th March. It was also recommended that greater emphasis should be devoted to the dissemination of EBC’s key policy documents.

Value of Treatment: A progress report on the development of the “Value of Treatment” study was provided, including the outcomes of the 3rd Roundtable on the 8th January and report on the Launch event on 27th January. Further to the discussion, both the management and the mandate of the project to date were approved by the Board.

EBC’s Call to Action: It was reported on the launch of the Call to Action organised in November 2015, to encourage EU Member States to develop brain plans. EBC managed to get support from its constituency as well as other stakeholders. The Call to Action aims to issue concrete elements to be provided to policy makers. As part of the presentation, EFNA also presented its new campaign: “Under the Umbrella” aiming to “brand the brain” in Europe.

STOA survey: Regarding the survey conducted on behalf of STOA on the use of new technologies in the treatment of addiction, a greater push had been made in order to improve the collection of data move to structured interviews. The next phase is semi-structured interviews with professionals in April. Results of the survey are expected to be presented in May or June in the European Parliament.

Communication: A new EBC’s Communication Strategy entitled “Raising the Profile” was presented to the Board, followed by recommendations and various steps in implementing EBC’s new image through campaigns and projects, and also through EBC’s new website, which was launched in November 2015.

Endorsement: The Board of EBC also agreed to provide its support and endorsement to the following initiative:

  • Declaration on good off-label us practices

EBC’s advocacy: Follow-up on ongoing advocacy activities was also reported upon, such as namely:

  • Responsible use of animals in scientific research
  • Personalized Medicine: A draft article on the EBC perspective on Personalized Medicine was presented to the Board.

Overview of current and proposed projects: The Board reviewed the projects in which EBC is involved currently and emphasized, in particular, the outcomes of the two projects coming to a close (Advance HTA & NERRI). The Board of EBC also confirmed EBC’s involvement in a few proposed projects.

EBC would like to take this opportunity to thank the delegates present for their contribution to these meetings.