GoEQIPD

The Guarantors of EQIPD (GoEQIPD) is a not-for-profit society established to oversee the implementation of the EQIPD Quality System (QS). The EQIPD (Ensuring Quality in Preclinical Data) QS was developed as one of the major deliverables of the European Quality in Preclinical Data Innovative Medicines Initiative project, which ran from 2017 to 2021 and received more than € 9m in public funding. The resulting QS system is described in a recent eLife publication.

The EQIPD-QS provides simple and sustainable solutions that facilitate improvements in data quality for laboratories or departments in an industry, CRO, or academic research settings without negatively impacting innovation or freedom of research. The development of EQIPD has been supported by a stakeholder group of over 100 and EQIPD has partnered with several organisations including Scientist.com to develop ways of implementing the EQIPD standards within their processes (Scientist.com extends its award-winning compliance platform to include the International Research Consortium's standards for preclinical studies.)

Six laboratories have received full EQIPD accreditation in the pilot phase. The architecture and components for the EQIPD QS are in the public domain and can be used by anyone who wishes to do so. Research units wishing to certify their compliance with EQPID QS please contact the Guarantors of EQIPD.

The goals of GoEQIPD are

• Maintaining and ensuring public access to information about the EQIPD quality system (e.g. via internet presence) for the scientific community
• Coordination of workshops, seminars and trainings for knowledge transfer to scientists 
• Further development of the quality system in particular and development of new standards for biomedical science and research
• Participation in scientific events and giving lectures on the EQIPD quality system and good research practice
• Development and publication of information in respect to good research practice in scientific journals and other media

For reaching these goals, GoEQIPD aims to:

• Establish collaborations with quality-oriented institutions
• Promote the EQIPD QS as a measure to improve preclinical research quality
• Present at events such as the EQIPD summer school or other opportunities
• Act as one of the board members of EQIPD (duties to further establish and develop the organisational structure)
• Establish a training protocol for future EQIPD quality assessors
• Help publishing on EQIPD related projects

The existence of an internationally recognised and supported quality system for preclinical research has a major impact on its quality culture. In the critical phase, efforts must focus on building stable governance, an efficient communication infrastructure and strong partnerships, as well as on obtaining funding to ensure the success of all operational and developmental tasks.