Coordination Team

The ERN eUROGEN HCP Network Coordinator is Radboudumc, which is the sole beneficiary of EC funds provided to support the network. Radboudumc is very familiar with running large EC research proposals and has extensive in-house resources, including experienced legal and ethics departments, a privacy office, an EU grants team, financial support teams, a clinical trials office, data entry support, data stewards, and data protection support.

Radboudumc employees (both clinical and non-clinical, across multiple departments in the HCP) support the HCP Network Coordinator Representative and the Coordination Team. This streamlined process and the significant contributions of the healthcare professionals working there facilitate the management of ERN eUROGEN.

The HCP Network Coordinator Representative is an individual healthcare professional with experience in the EAs covered by ERN eUROGEN and a proven ability to coordinate and lead a network. They have overall responsibility for managing the network’s participants, overseeing all aspects of strategic plans, work packages, objectives, and activities relating to the network’s work packages. They chair the Strategic Board, manage the Coordination Team, assign work, ensure objectives are met and delivered on time and within budget, and identify and resolve issues and risks.

The rest of the Coordination Team is comprised of individuals with expertise in project management, business support management, data performance analysis, IT support, and clinical knowledge of the EAs covered by ERN eUROGEN, who support the HCP Network Coordinator Representative with all aspects of network coordination relating to the work packages. The team meets weekly to make sure work is kept on track.

You can find out who is on the team and read more about them below.

ERN eUROGEN HCP Network Coordinator Representative

Prof. Wout Feitz – Prof. Feitz is the Representative of ERN eUROGEN’s HCP Network Coordinator, Radboudumc.

Therefore, he has overall responsibility for the ERN eUROGEN work packages, submitting European Commission (EC) grant proposals to secure ERN funding, managing and reporting on the grants, and fostering relationships with the EC. He is Chair of the EC ERN Monitoring Working Group (which ERN eUROGEN leads for all ERNs).

Prof. Feitz studied Medicine in Nijmegen, specializing first in urology and then in the field of pediatric urology. In 1993, he was appointed as a Pediatric Urologist in the Department of Urology at Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, NL. In 2001 he became an associate professor and, in 2006, a full professor in Pediatric Urology at Radboud University, Nijmegen.

ERN eUROGEN Programme Manager

Michelle Battye – Michelle is responsible for all operational aspects of the network, reporting to the HCP Network Coordinator Representative, Prof. Wout Feitz. Her main focus is on ensuring the network is active, working together as a team, and that it is delivering.

Therefore, Michelle oversees ERN eUROGEN’s work packages, and is responsible for drafting multiple European Commission (EC) grant proposals to secure ERN funding, managing and reporting on the grants, and fostering relationships with the EC. She also helps out with the EC ERN Monitoring Working Group (which ERN eUROGEN leads for all ERNs).

Michelle has a background in European project management, European policy coordination, European partnerships, conference management, and training, and has worked for the European Commission, UK Government, and UK National Health Service (NHS).

ERN eUROGEN Business Support Manager

Jen Tidman – Jen is responsible for supporting and managing the administrative aspects of ERN eUROGEN’s business and day-to-day coordination.

She assists the rest of the Coordination Team and all network members and partners, oversees emails to/from the network, arranges and facilitates virtual and face-to-face meetings, creates agendas and takes minutes, implements and maintains administrative and archival systems (e.g., the ERN Collaborative Platform), and assists with coordination and governance activities, including project management, grant writing, and report writing.

With a background in both journalism and publishing, she is the production lead for the ERN eUROGEN book on rare and complex urology and is responsible for ERN eUROGEN’s dissemination activities, including maintaining the website, compiling the e-newsletters, managing social media, and anything else to do with the promotion of the network.

ERN eUROGEN Lead IT and Data Performance Analyst

Darren Shilhan – Darren helps our network clinicians get their difficult patient cases uploaded to the Clinical Patient Management System (CPMS). He also focuses on data analysis, including the collection of patient data from our member centres and produces a performance dashboard each month that monitors the activity of the network. Darren co-organises the ERN eUROGEN webinar programme.

He has worked as a data performance analyst, policy advisor, and trainer for the UK Civil Service.

ERN eUROGEN Clinical Specialist

Parmida Anvary – Parmida facilitates the virtual multi-disciplinary team meetings that ERN eUROGEN holds using the Clinical Patient Management System (CPMS) and coordinates the ERN eUROGEN webinar programme.

Parmida studied medicine in Nijmegen and obtained her medical degree in 2023. She will work on her PhD thesis on bladder exstrophy at the Pediatric Urology Department of Radboudumc.

ERN eUROGEN Registry Coordinator

Loes van der Zanden – Loes is developing ERN eUROGEN’s patient registry, facilitating its set-up, launch and maintenance.

Loes gained her PhD in 2012, which involved paediatric urology data collection relating to genetics, environmental factors, and gene-environment interactions in the aetiology of hypospadias within the AGORA biobank.

Since then, she has been carrying out postdoctoral research on genetic and environmental risk factors for congenital anomalies (AGORA) and coordinating an international EU FP7 Health Project, EuroTARGET (European collaborative project on TArgeted therapy in Renal cell cancer: GEnetic and Tumour-related biomarkers for response and toxicity).

ERN eUROGEN Registry Manager

Lotte Boormans – Lotte is the Registry Manager of the ERN eUROGEN. In that role, she helps Loes set up and maintain the patient registry. She is also a contact person for the HCPs, to assist with implementing the registries and answering any practical questions.

In 2021, Lotte obtained her Master’s degree in Medical Biology at Radboudumc, Nijmegen.