A.The Management Board (MB) consists of the following members:
The Project Coordinator (PC)
The Project Manager (PM)
The Financial Manager (FM)
The Dissemination Manager (DM)

B.
Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) consists of Project Coordinator (PC) and WP leaders.

C.
The General Assembly (GA) consists of the representatives of each Partner of the EPISTOP project and acts as a collective organism, in order to take all strategic decisions for the project. The board decides according to the majority of its members; Leaders of Clinical Sites compose Clinical Team and Leaders of Basic Science Sites compose Basic Science Team.

D.The External Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) consists of a group of experts selected among the most important research and industrial stakeholders of health sector to monitor and support the project activities.

General Assembly

The General Assembly (GA) is the central management mechanism of the consortium. It is responsible for the overall management and running of the project. It will also be responsible for resolving all major problems that may arise. It comprises one representative member from each partner. All members of the GA have an equal say in the project. Where necessary, decisions will be taken by voting, when all of the members will have one vote and the normal majority will be necessary to make the decision. Additional members, such as partner’s project and technical managers will attend the Project Board meetings as agreed. The GA will meet annually and it will deal with reporting the progress of the work, identifying problems and suggesting solutions, achieving high level of communication, integration, dissemination and effective exploitation. The provisions for the preparation of the meetings of the GA are made by the MB in order to secure early identification of problems and timely completion of the agenda to be discussed. Records will be kept for each GA meeting. Conclusions and decisions of the GA will rely on the opinion of the majority, although in the event that votes are split equally, the PC will have the right to a second vote.

Management Board

The strategic role of the MB in the management of the project is to increase flexibility (i.e. more regular meetings, easier personal contact, better understanding, no need for laborious preparations of large meetings, smaller management costs) and maximise effectiveness (e.g. simpler decision making, more accountability).

1. Project Coordinator

The mission of the PC is to monitor the scientific progress of the project, to make sure that the project retains the same and steady direction and that the administration of the project acquires the highest level of effectiveness and flexibility. The PC of EPISTOP project is Prof. Sergiusz Jozwiak, paediatric neurologists, Head of Department of Neurology of the Children’s Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland. Professor Sergiusz Jozwiak was a leader of 4 research collaborative projects with international cooperation and partner in National Institute of Health (NIH) projects. His main interest is epilepsy and tuberous sclerosis complex. He is an author of over 120 pear review articles cited in PubMed. His Hirsch index is 23.

2. Project Manager

The EPISTOP PM is an experienced project manager and a specialist in scientific research projects. She has the overall responsibility for the running of the project, ensuring delivery to time, cost and required quality. She has a major involvement throughout the duration of the
project, being responsible for delivery of the overall project objectives through:

• Definition and implementation of the management framework (structure and procedures) to be adopted throughout the project
• Daily co-ordination at consortium level of the management and technical activities of the project, ensuring co-operation among partners, anticipating and managing potential conflicts
• Project Reporting and coordination of management material, managing change control
• Appropriate guidelines for each of the participants
• Overseeing the quality management of the project task co-ordination and managing interdependencies

The PM works in close consultation with the other members of the Management Team and handles all operational relations with the EC.

3. Financial Manager

The Financial Manager is responsible for the financial administration of the project. The mission of the FM is to record the financial activities of the consortium exploiting alternatives for more effective practices, to deal with issues related to National Tax system, to assist partners for the preparation of financial reports to the Commission, and to support the participant in all the financial issues that relate to their contractual obligations.

4. The Dissemination Manager

The Dissemination Manager (DM) has the responsibility to ensure the maximum visibility of the project in the scientific and industrial community and coordinates the exploitation of the project results, ensuring a proper and sustainable use of the results achieved and the knowledge generated by the partners within the EPISTOP project. The DM is in charge of the WP8, dedicated to dissemination and exploitation and plays a key role in the preparation and the implementation of the project’s dissemination and exploitation plan. The DM is supported by the Dissemination Team, with members assigned by each partner, so as to clearly define the dissemination and exploitation strategy for the EPISTOP products. The Dissemination Manager is Dr. Anna Janssen, the leader of WP8 (Dissemination, exploitation and training).

Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)

The SAB acts as a team of peer-reviewers who provide the mechanism for continuous external (they are not financially or otherwise associated with any of the participants) evaluation and quality assurance of deliverables. SAB receives periodic reports (interim and final) based on which they provide their comments and suggestions. Additionally, if required, SAB will participate in the project meetings of the GA and will offer critical remarks for the content and the achievements of the research group. The external Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) is composed of distinguished clinical and basic scientists, experts also in the ethical aspects of clinical studies, biobanking, tissue studies, genetic testing, and protection of personal data. The members of SAB are:

• Professor Anna Maria Vezzani, neuroscientist
• Professor Carl Stafstrom, clinical and experimental epileptologist
• Professor Leszek Kaczmarek, neuroscientist
• Professor Renzo Guerrini, clinical epileptologist
• Dr. Marcin Balcerzak, representing pharma industry involved in epilepsy research

Work-package management

For each Work-package one consortium partner has been identified as a Work-package Leader, according to its experience on the specific activities to be carried out. The WP Leader is responsible for the co-ordination of the work of the partners collaborating on that Work-package. The WP Leader ensures that deliverables are being produced on time and within the budget. During the execution of each Work-package, the WP leader ensures a proper exchange of information with the other partners not participating in particular WP in order to keep the whole consortium updated on the activities within the project. When necessary the WP Leader convenes meetings of the collaborating partners. They make use of telephone conferences where possible in order to minimise travel costs. Each consortium partner identifies a WP Manager for each work-package in which the partner is involved. The WP Manager is responsible for:

1. keeping contacts with all partners involved in that work-package
2. co-ordination of the activities of the local staff involved in the project
3. resolution of day to day administrative, technical and resource problems
4. maintaining the local accounts and preparing financial reports
5. liaison between their organisation and the Work-package Leader
6. dissemination of information relating to all aspects of the work
7. reporting on the work to the collaborating partners