Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
According to Wikipedia a Foundation is defined as follows: “A Foundation is a legal categorization of nonprofit organizations that will typically either donate funds and support to other organizations, or provide the source of funding for its own charitable purposes.”
No, a Foundation as a legal entity does not allow membership at all. This is why the ECA Academy was founded. Every person active in the field of pharmaceutical Quality Assurance and GMP Compliance can become member of the ECA Academy. The membership is available for a fee of 190,- Euro per year. But membership is also available at no costs by participation in any ECA Academy training course or conference.
The ECA Foundation is the legal entity and is headed by an Advisory Board. The Advisory Board (also called Foundation Board) consists of experts from industry and authorities. It is the aim of the Advisory Board to provide support to promote the move toward a harmonized set of GMP and Regulatory Guidelines. The Academy is the educational organisation of the ECA Foundation. The Academy develops GMP training courses and conferences. In addition to the Academy the Foundation also initiated several Interest and Working Groups . It is the goal of the Foundation to further develop these groups and to set up new groups.
Normally the ECA Foundation starts a new activity by setting up a Working Group. This is usually a small team of industry and authority experts (between 3 and 10 people). The Working Group works on a concrete GMP topic, e.g. by means of developing an interpretation of a regulatory requirement – usually a Guidance Document or an SOP. Some Working Groups are possibly transferred to an Interest Group at a later stage. This will allow further colleagues in industry and authority to join the group and to get actively involved. The most successful Interest Group by the ECA Foundation is the European QP Association. The Foundation ensures that the Working Group and Interest Group receives the necessary support to enable professionals to join their group of interest free of charge.