Supervisory board
The supervisory board is composed of full and associated partners of the network, the ER, two external advisors and 3 ESRs (rotating). Furthermore, the network-wide training activities will be co-ordinated by the training coordinators Ellen Goossens (partner 2, VUB) and Jan-Bernd Stukenborg (partner 5, KI) together with the general coordinator Ans van Pelt (AMC). They are responsible for overseeing the quality of the network wide trainings of ESRs.
The external members of the board are Em. Prof. André Van Steirteghem and Em. Prof. Dirk de Rooij. Em. Prof. André Van Steirteghem has extensive experience with clinical assisted reproduction and is world-renowned for the development of the ICSI technique, while Prof. Em. Dirk de Rooij is a world expert on spermatogonial stem cell research. The supervisory board will meet once a year to evaluate the research progress and milestones. They will advise the scientists-in-charge about the recruitment of researchers and give their opinion on validation, application and dissemination possibilities.

Ethics Board composition and competence
The Ethics board is composed of external legally liable persons with experience in Animal ethics and Medical ethics. The members of the Ethics board are Em. Prof. André Van Steirteghem, Dr. Chr. W. Pool and Dr. A Bredenoord. Prof. André Van Steirteghem was for the last four years a member of the Belgian National Committee of Bio-Ethics and he is currently chairman of the Belgian Federal Commission for the Protection of the Human Embryo in Vitro, Dr. Chr. W. Pool is head of the Animal Ethics board of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science (KNAW) and Dr. A Bredenoord is an assistant professor of biomedical ethics at UMC Utrecht, The Netherlands.
The role of the Ethics board will be involved the relevant ethical issues within the consortium and provide advice to the GROWSPERM partners in relation to:
– Patient information sheet and consent forms.
– Use of animal and implementation of the 3Rs.
– Processing of patient data and anonymous access to patients data.
– Relevant ethical advice to ESRs and their supervisors for the projects.