Working Package 20: Project management

The Project Office will be managed by the Project Co-ordination Team (PCT)  represented by Prof. Isabella Annesi-Maesano  (coordinator) and Prof. Dimosthenis Sarigiannis  (co-coordinator) from University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and by the Administrative and Financial Coordinator (AFC)  supported by the UPMC and AUTH Research Office staff.

The activities of this task will include:

• To coordinate the overall scientific and ethical aspects of the project;

• To provide scientific leadership of the whole project; and act as the final arbiter and decision-maker on scientific

issues and overall project strategy

• To ensure integration of all the different project elements;

• To ensure the activities of the project are carried  out by the partners in a timely and correct manner;

• together with the Stream leaders responsible  for reporting

• To oversee the use and dissemination of generated knowledge,

• To deal with any significant emerging issues not covered  by the management  procedures;

• To monitor and discuss reports on Stream progress  according  to work plan and resource allocation.

• To prepare and approve consortium agreement.

• To approve official documents and to promote  the participation at conferences and workshops.

• To organize annual general assembly (AGM), scientific and PAB meetings.

• To help organize Stream meetings (normally six monthly).

• To prepare agendas and to approve  minutes  for each annual meeting.

• To support coordination and communications  between the Stream and WP project teams and with the EC  and with other organisations,  and to act as a focal point for external contacts  on behalf of the project

• To steer and stimulate scientific critical evaluation of the major results.

• To organize and implement the incorporation of additional interested parties into the project consortium (eg subcontractors)  following principles of best value for money (best price-quality ratio), transparency  and equal treatment.

• To oversee the financial administration and resource monitoring and to maintain  all other financial and administrative  matters related to the contract.

• To monitor equal opportunities and gender equality.

• To ensure a suitable time management:  timetable, deliverables  and milestones and establishment of a realistic project roadmap;  collection from all participants the costs and other relevant statements

• To oversee the quality management

• To organise and manage  joint or common  initiatives such as organisation of meetings

The Project Co-ordination Group (PCG) together with the Administrative  Coordinator  (AC) will be directly responsible  for the correct application of Procedures of QA/QC, which  will ensure that all agreed scientifically acceptable  criteria and protocols are being followed for work. CG  will monitor the quality of all main deliverables to ensure that they meet the highest of standards in terms of technical content, completeness,  uniformity  of coverage, presentation and format. Project  outputs will be reviewed internally by SL Leaders and at least one other partner and an editorial panel will review publications  submitted to international journals. There will  be a particular emphasis on publishing papers to high quality journals  as they provide an independent review of the work. PCG in collaboration  with AC will also oversee any element of risk to the project and will take the necessary measures to overcome  or limit any possible effect which is likely to affect the implementation and progress of the project.

Integration is a vital element  of major project especially  when integration of data, methods and tools is clearly a priority as it is in this study, and much of the scientific  effort will be devoted to developing the tools needed  to enable  integration of this sort. On this issue HEALS will be managed  to ensure promote and maintain scientific integration and coherence within and across different Streams, and in particular to clarify in greater detail  the conceptual framework, especially  where outputs from one WP are inputs to another.

 The coordination of the overall scientific and ethical aspects of the project will include a regular exchange with all stream and WP leaders about the progress  made. In addition  it will comprise a feedback of condensed information  to all other streams and WPs in order to ensure integration of all the different project elements. This will be done by regular information notes and protocols from stream leader and WP leader meetings, from  the six-monthly stream leader reports . In this context the scientific coordinator might alert the project coordinator about any news related to delay in progress made, problems and challenges observed, as well as good  practice and alternative approaches identified. The scientific coordination of the project work would also involve the evaluation and follow up of all work plans elaborated in the different streams in order to check for potential shortcomings  and overlaps. Such information will be directly transferred  to the SC/PCG for information and adjustments and will be discussed with the stream and WP leaders concerned. Management activities  in this field will in addition address the use and dissemination of generated knowledge in close coordination with the other members  of the PCG, and with the leader  of Stream 6. Another aspect of scientific coordination comprises the organisation  of site visits  if necessary or beneficiary for supporting the project progress.

In order to ensure effective and successful progress and completion of the project, the co-ordinators  and leaders at the different levels of the project have been attributed clear roles and responsibilities (see Section 2.1), and a large number of meetings and telephone communications are envisaged throughout the project running time (see Section 2.1). Although this will already  help mutual support, and a free and efficient transfer of  information between the different elements  of the project and the different levels of management,  this will only work if a control and surveillance system is installed in particular  with respect to time management.  In order  to ensure a maximum efficiency and overview this system will attribute within HEALS one partner institution from the group of stream leaders who will directly support the Project  coordinator in this task.

The partner  will  have the overall overview and responsibility  for any deadlines in the project timeline. Time management  will be led by the Administrative Coordinator (AC) and it comprises all activities necessary to ensure that the  activities  of the project are carried  out by the partners in a timely and correct manner. While work package leaders and stream leaders are responsible  for this task within their work packages, practical experience shows  that deadlines  and milestones are easily forgotten, when there is not reminding system installed. Such a system can be realised via an electronic alert via Outlook in terms of an online “meeting request” including iterative reminders.

Such alerts would cover announcements of internal and external meetings, telephone/video conference, and internal and external reporting deadlines, etc. The meeting requests  will be disseminated to different mailing lists according  to the responsibilities  and involvement in different project bodies. Time management  will also include the bilateral exchange with Stream Leaders (SLs)  about SPG  meetings and additional special meetings needed in order to inform about potential clashes in dates.

The same exchange will be organised  with WP Leaders in order to get an overview and be able to coordinate timing of meetings of the Work-package  Planning Groups (WPG). This is considered  highly important, given the number of meetings and the multiple involvement  of the majority of partners in different streams and WPs. Time management  will advise the stream leaders and/or WP leaders in efficiently selecting  dates and for reasons of efficiency  will aim at back-to-back meetings or combined meetings whenever possible.

Meeting  management  will be led by the Administrative and Financial Coordinator (AFC)  and will comprise administrative and organisational tasks related to preparation,  execution  and post processing of physical meetings foreseen  to take place during the project running time. This includes setting of dates and selection of locations/venues in close collaboration  with the other partners, early information and reminding of potential participants, agenda,  invitation, dissemination  of meeting material, minutes, etc. (depending on type of meeting). Organisational  support that will be provided by the project management  to project-meeting,  workshops,  conferences and exhibitions,  will comprise  printing of flyers and invitations, mailing actions,  hotel reservation and fee regulation of training-courses where relevant. The corporate project design and lay-out of and print material  will be developed by WP19 in close cooperation with the SC  and the PCG and with the approval  from the AGM. Meeting dates are foreseen  to be fixed in the Consortium  agreement  but a fine-tuning of meetings  will be necessary throughout the project running time. Such fine-tuning can be organised via electronic (doodle) requests  to all participants  with sufficient time in advance. The period will follow scientific rules,  with delays related  to the scope and importance of the meeting. Meeting management  will include the screening  of public holidays in partner countries or for Commission  Services, and will take into consideration important scientific conferences and events in close cooperation with the responsible  Work packages. In order  to limit and balance travel costs it is envisaged  to schedule physical  meetings alternatingly at different central locations  within countries  where partners  are located. Whenever possible partner premises will be used in order to minimise  costs.