Weepi

Advisory Board Terms of Reference

Role and tasks of the Advisory Board

The WEEPI Advisory Board is a group of persons with particular expertise and experience relevant to the fulfilment of the aims and objectives of the Foundation. The role of the Advisory Board is to advise the Foundation Executive Board on the development and execution of its programme of work.

The main tasks of the Advisory Board are to:
  1. provide input on any plans or proposals as requested by the WEEPI Foundation Board;
  2. make suggestions to the Executive Board on any specific areas that might be covered by future calls for proposals;
  3. propose to the Executive Board any changes to the evaluation criteria used for reviewing and scoring the eligible project proposals;
  4. supervise the issue of calls for stage 1 or stage 2 proposals;
  5. based on the external expert review process, make recommendations to the Executive Board on suitable proposals to be approved for funding; and
  6. make suggestions to the Executive Board on any improvements to the WEEPI workflow to increase the efficiency for future calls for proposals.
To better fulfill these tasks, the Advisory Board may correspond with individual experts or suitable organizations on specific issues on a time limited and temporary basis. At the beginning of the year, the Chair of the Advisory Board shall be responsible for sending to the Executive Board a brief annual report of the work of the Advisory Board covering the previous calendar year.
 

Composition of the Advisory Board

The WEEPI Foundation Board will formally appoint the members of the Advisory Board following the recommendation of the Executive Board.  The Advisory Board will consist of experts participants selected from leading European clinical associations or learned societies, non-governmental community organisations involved in HIV, viral hepatitis and TB and key public health organizations. In addition, the Foundation Board, guided by the Executive Board, may appoint a number of individual experts/clinicians with a significant role in the provision of HIV, viral hepatitis or TB clinical or public health services from countries in the eastern part of the WHO European Region. These national experts will have the status of observers but will exercise all the rights and responsibilities of an expert participant, apart from the right to vote. 

When appointing the Advisory Board members, the Foundation Board shall seek to achieve gender balance as well as a balanced distribution of expertise across the three disease areas. The initial appointment of members will be for three years. Members may be re-appointed. Members may expect the WEEPI Foundation to cover reasonable expenses for their involvement and travel.

The secretariat of the Advisory Board shall be provided by Executive Board.

The Advisory Board will select and appoint a chair from among its members. This position will be reviewed on an annual basis. The chair can be re-appointed. 

 

Work procedure

The Advisory Board will meet face-to-face at least once a year with all reasonable travel expenses covered by the Foundation. In between the physical meetings, the Advisory Board may call for shorter specific meetings by tele/videoconferencing. Otherwise communication between the members should be maintained by extranet workspace, tele/videoconferences and via emails as required. 

The chair will draft the agenda and organise the Advisory Board meetings with support from the secretariat. Representatives of the Executive Board shall be invited to all meetings.

The Advisory Board meetings shall go ahead if at least half of its members are present.

The secretariat will be provided by Executive Board and will take minutes of the Advisory Board meetings to be circulated to the members for their review and comments no later than two weeks following the meeting. The final minutes will be approved by the chair and distributed to all the Advisory Board members and to the Executive Board.

Agreement on the Advisory Board opinions or advice should strive to be achieved by consensus. If after a reasonable attempt this does not appear to be possible, the Chair may push the decision to be made by simple majority voting. Only the full expert members are entitled to vote, while observers may make their opinions known during the preceding discussions. In the event of a tie the Chair shall decide.

The Advisory Board shall otherwise regulate its own internal procedures as required.

These terms of reference should be reviewed by the Advisory Board on an annual basis and any proposed changes be referred to the Executive Board for their consideration.