Our profile


The European Epilepsy Academy was founded on August 31st, 1996 in Den Haag, the Netherlands, by European ILAE chapters and epilepsy centres as well as prominent European epileptologists. The base for EUREPA is in Bielefeld, Germany, where it was incorporated as a legal registered association with a non-profit status in 1997 (EUREPA Statutes as of July 2007 [PDF, 110kB]).

Within the European region EUREPA has been a pioneer in developing strategies for quality-controlled education in epileptology.
Main activities within the first decade were the

Besides the involvement in these continuing overall strategies, the EUREPA office

  • collects & publishes information on European educational activities & projects;
  • supports course organizers regarding any matter related to their activities such as course accreditation, budget establishment, funding by ILAE & ILAE-CEA, didactic approaches and evaluation procedures;
  • provides professionals in the field of epilepsy with information on continuous medical educational activities, on scholarships/grants, and with material, publications and useful links;
  • guides applicants through the curriculum to obtain the EUREPA Certification in Epileptology for Medical Doctors;
  • offers logistic services for international residential courses in as much as staff capacity allows.

In the meantime the EUREPA profile has broadened its scope in various dimensions and become more and more international. In its Francophone and Lusophone Sections it has expanded to extra-European regions. With the development of the ILAE Global Education Agenda [PDF,166KB]  and the wish of the ILAE to profit from and sustain these resources, experience and infrastructure, EUREPA's role has evolved and is in the process of change. The ILAE Global Education Agenda summarizes the system of dissemination, sharing and exchange of knowledge, information and material between the ILAE Executive Committee, the Commission on Education, various sub-commissions and the office as "ILAE Epilepsy Academy". Thus the EUREPA office acts also as the Epilepsy Academy office. In this capacity, the EUREPA/Epilepsy Academy office supports the ILAE Global Education Agenda in different ways, the main items mentioned here:

  • The VIREPA distance education program is booked by and open for physicians worldwide. The program is planned to be extended, diversified and differentiated to offer various course formats & topics to different target groups. Accompanying the pilot project course "Genetics of Epilepsy" of the VIREPA distance education program a prospective, controlled study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of the e-learning course and to assess the experiences of the participants and e-moderators with this new approach. The study indicates e-learning courses are an appropriate tool to improve knowledge of physicians in genetics of epilepsy. You will find the full text of this study in Epilepsia, 48(5):872–879, 2007, online: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/117957932/PDFSTART [PDF, 139KB]  (Abstract: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117957932/abstract).
  • Besides this EUREPA website, the office also maintains the Epilepsy Academy website (to be launched in the near future) as part of the ILAE web presentation – the Information Portal related to educational activities worldwide. This website also supports course organizers with information on didactic, organization and faculty and provides potential applicants with helpful information. Links to and fro between the sites shall contribute to a more global picture on the ILAE educational activities worldwide.
  • The Commission on Education also proposed the creation of a Knowledge Portal with downloadable educational material and related services. This Knowledge Portal shall aggregate structured and selected epileptological knowledge from multiple sources available to ILAE members. This project is supposed to be worked on within the period of office of the new ILAE Boards.
  • The office maintains a database on granted ILAE bursaries accessible to course organizers applying for financial support from an ILAE body.
  • A worldwide educational system transparent to and open for all professionals composed of onsite courses, distance learning courses and onsite training shall assemble to a profile as "certified epilepsy specialist". Essentials to composing this curriculum have been started on the basis of the “EUREPA Certification in Epileptology”.