ERBP – European Renal Best Practice

I. Duties of the ERBP Advisory Board

1. Disseminating, endorsing and stimulating implementation and translation of guidance, through official publications, in nephrology following the collaboration with guideline production bodies.
2. Producing statements (consensus or controversy statements) related to best practice in collaboration with other ERA bodies and/or guidelines in the field produced by other bodies.

II. Committee composition and election procedure

1. The ERBP Advisory Board should have a minimum of 7 to a maximum of 15 members: a Chair, Vice-Chair ordinary and ex-officio members;
2. Members should include nephrologists and non-nephrologists, in particular: guideline development methodologists, epidemiologists, nurses, paediatric nephrologists, etc.
3. The Chair, Vice-Chair and the ordinary members will be appointed by the Council based on their scientific achievements, past experience and publication record in clinical epidemiology also including their involvement in boards aimed at disseminating/implementing/translating/creating guidelines. Eligible candidates should be active in the field of nephrology and related areas, guideline development or methodology. A candidate could also be a person whose expertise is considered relevant for ERBP for any other reason. Candidates for the Advisory Board should use a specific candidacy application form;
4. The ERBP Chair must be an ERA Council member at the time of his/her election. His/her mandate is for 3 years. He/she should be nominated as ERBP Chair Elect one year before the end of the term of the current Chair. He/she will work closely in collaboration with the current Chair until he/she officially starts his/her term the following year. During this time he/she will have a voice but no vote on the Board;
5. The term of the ERBP Vice-Chair is 3 years and he/she can be re-elected only for another 3-year mandate;
6. All members must be ERA Full members (exceptions are possible only for non-nephrologists) and must be nominated/confirmed by the Council;
7. The Clinical Nephrology Governance Chair and the Registry Managing Director are ex-officio members.

III. Terms and rotation

Membership ends with voluntary resignation, by exclusion due to serious and well-founded reasons or by natural rotation due to the end of their term.

1. Voluntary resignation from the ERBP Advisory Board is possible at any time but must be communicated in writing to the Chair and does not absolve the resignee from the fulfilment of commitments made up to the date of resignation;
2. The exclusion of a member from the ERBP may be exercised because of a violation of ERBP duties or the provisions of the present regulations and/or ERA regulations, or if the member does not participate in 2 consecutive meetings without a valid reason. The decision to exclude a member can be taken either by the ERBP Advisory Board or the ERA Council by a majority vote;
3. The term of the Advisory Board members is 3 years and can be renewed for a further 3-year term only (except for the Chair whose term is of 3 years only). If a decision must be made regarding who will remain or leave the board, then this will be made by secret ballot upon a proposal by the Chair. Priority to remain on the board will be decided by the Chair based on the willingness of the person to remain, the role of the person within the board as well as the board membership seniority.
4. The term of the Chair is three years, in addition to any eventual time already spent on the Advisory Board as a member;
5. As far as the Clinical Nephrology Governance Chair and the Registry Managing Director are concerned, the term of office is according to their mandate within the Council or the Registry;
6. Once an Advisory Board member has ended his/her term, they can only re-apply for a position on the board after observing a minimum break of three years;
7. A departing ERBP Advisory Board member will receive a diploma for their term on the ERBP Advisory Board. For more information, one should refer to the appropriate section in the General Rules for ERA Committees.

IV. Advisory Board meetings

1. Advisory Board members should meet regularly to pursue its goals, possibly via teleconference, however, and only if needed, one face-to-face meeting is possible;
2. For the rules regarding the reimbursement policy for ERBP Advisory Board members who participate in face-to-face meetings, for example, organized at the time of the annual ERA Congress, one must refer to the General Rules for ERA Committees.
3. During elections/voting held within the Board, in case of an equal number of votes, the Chair has the casting vote.

V. Role of the “Task Forces”

1. The Chair will decide if an ERBP initiative will need the support of a specific task force of selected experts;
2. If this occurs the Chair must nominate a Co-Chair that will be responsible for the activities of the said task force;
3. Each initiative must comply with a fixed structure that must include the following:
4. Description of the project and objectives/outcome;
5. Structure of the task force;
6. Timeline of the initiative (beginning, development, closure);
7. Normally no funds will be provided for these projects but if this occurs, a clear detailed budget must be included as well.
8. Each project must be evaluated by the SAB before the initiative can start for feasibility/need and eventual cost/effectiveness, finally, if approved, the project must be again evaluated by SAB to evaluate the outcome;
9. The Chair is responsible for coordinating the various task forces and regularly updating the Council on their activities;
10. The Advisory Board members should normally be involved, if and when appropriate, in these task forces.

VI. Output and visibility

It is recommended that the output of ERBP be submitted for publication in ERA journals, subject to the usual peer review process and the Editor’s final decision.

Any publication or report on ERBP must clearly mention the fact that ERBP is a body of ERA. The sentence approved by Council related to this matter is: “This article (to be adapted accordingly) was written by (to be adapted accordingly) on behalf of ERBP which is an official body of the ERA (European Renal Association).”

Last update: December 2022