FP7: Project Management issues, Roles and responsibilities, the competition process

1. FP7: Project Management issues, Roles and responsibilities, the competition process

2. Management bodies and roles • TheSteering Committee will act as decision body for the Project. Each Party will nominate representatives to the Steering Committee with due authorisation to discuss, negotiate and decide on actions proposed by the Co-ordinator or to accept recommendations made by the bodies within the frame of its responsibilities. • The Coordinator is the intermediary to the European Commission, is authorised to execute the project management, shall report and be accountable to the Project Steering Committee. • The Management Commissionwill support the Co-ordinator. The Management Commission will consist of the Co-ordinator, one person elected by the Steering Committee and the administrative Manager of Project. The Administrative Manager, established by the Project Co-ordinator shall provide the necessary support for day-by-day project management for the Project Steering Committee as well as reporting activities to the European Commission. The Co-ordinator together with the Administrative Manager will be responsible to assure that each Party hereby undertakes with respect to other Parties all reasonable endeavours to perform and fulfil, promptly, actively and on time, all of its obligations from the proposal. • Panels can be established by the Steering Committee to deal with specific issues or problems, e.g. Technical, Technology or Scientific Panel, Financial Panel, and Exploitation or Dissemination Panel.

3. Management bodies and roles • The decisions of the Steering Committee will be binding to all Parties in the Project-related matters like: • The preparation and final approval of the annual Implementation Plan prior to the submission to the European Commission, • All budget-related matters, • The acceptance of new parties as well as the exclusion of Parties, • The structure and restructuring of the Work-Packages, • The alteration of the Teaming Agreement, • The premature completion/ termination of the Project, and • The designation of the Trustees in accordance with this Teaming Agreement • In the remaining cases, the Management Commission has the authority to make decisions. • Meetings of the Steering Committee will be held on invitation of the chairperson of the Project Management Commission, at least once a year. In its yearly meeting the Steering Committee shall consider the report of the Project Management Commission, receive and approve the accounts for the past (financial) year, approve the budget and Implementation Plan for the next (financial) year and decide on changes in work shares as well as acceptance of new parties or withdrawals or exclusion of parties. The first meeting of the Steering Committee (Kick-off Meeting of the Project) will take place at the latest one month after the Co-ordinator has signed the Contract.

4. Management bodies and roles • The Coordinator will coordinate the Project under the control of the Project Management Commission, which can delegate a number of functions to the Coordinator. The Project Management Commission assumes overall responsibility towards the Steering Committee for liaison between the Parties for analysing and approving the results generated in Work-Packages or Panels. The Steering Committee can set up Panels to advise and support the Co-ordinator in the proper management and co-ordination of the Project. These Panels will have an advisory role only. • The Project Management Commission will at least meet quarterly on invitation of the Co-ordinator.

5. Management bodies and roles • The Project Management Commission shall be responsible for: • Supporting the Co-ordinator in fulfilling obligations towards the European Commission, • Ensuring that all work meets functional requirements, • Providing project management in relation to the activities of the Panels on technical, financial and/or exploitation/ dissemination issues, as applicable, • Reviewing and proposing to the Steering Committee budget transfers in accordance with the Contract and the annual Implementation Plan, • Proposing changes in work sharing, budget and participants to the Steering Committee, • Deciding on the annual Implementation Plan for approval by the Steering Committee prior to its submission to the European Commission, • Agreeing on press releases and joint publications by the Parties with regard to the Project, and • Agreeing on procedures and policies for Dissemination of Knowledge from the Project.

6. Management bodies and roles • The coordinator will be the single point of contact between the European Commission and the Consortium. • In this function the Coordinator shall: • Sign the Contract with the European Commission, • Collect from all Parties the cost and other statements for submission to the European Commission, • Prepare, with the support of the members of the Project Co-ordination Committee, the reports and project documents required by the European Commission, and • Ensure prompt delivery of all reports, hardware, software and data identified as deliverable items in the Contract or requested by the European Commission for reviews and audits, including the results of the financial audits.

7. Management bodies and roles • The Co-ordinator is responsible for the following tasks and functions: • Overall management of the Project with the support of a Project Management Commission, if necessary. • Chairing the Project Management Commission and the Steering Committee. • Preparation of the meetings and decisions of the Steering Committee and the Project Management Commission. • To the extent that serious concerns regarding the financial soundness of one or several Parties exist, the Co-ordinator has the authority to require the appropriate letter of comfort to prove that the corresponding Party is able to fulfil their financial obligations with regard to the Contract and this Agreement. Until this is provided, the Co-ordinator is entitled to refuse the disbursement of the financial contributions of the European Commission to this Party. • Furthermore, the Co-ordinator has the right to retain any payment if a Party is late in submitting or refuses to provide deliverables. • If one or more of the Parties is late in submitting of Project deliverables, the Co-ordinator may submit the other Parties' Project deliverables to the European Commission.

8. Management bodies and roles • The coordinator may delegate some of its functions to an equivalent person from its organisation, if needed, or from other partner. • To facilitate the organisation and management, the Project is structured in Work-Packages, which together comprise the Project. This structure is approved by the Steering Committee based on the work breakdown structure provided with the Work Plan in the Proposal. • Additionally, each WP will be led by a partner who will nominate a Work package Leader to manage the Work package activity. It is the Work package Leader responsibility to ensure that the Work package schedule is followed and the technical requirements are met. The WP Leaders will contribute to the preparation of deliverables, review meeting and the production of reports.

9. Risks management • Discrepancies occurred during the development of the project tasks must be anticipated and reported immediately to the WP Leader. The WP Leader will try to solve the conflicts and will communicate every incident to the Project Coordinator. • Successful projects do not rely on the absence of problems but in anticipating and managing the risks so that when problems occur they can be resolved and overcome. • Risk management requires identification, control and recording of risks, highlighting of the consequences and the appropriate management actions. Risk management is a balance of judgement so that the risks are minimised without over-emphasising the potential problems. Controlling the risks will help us to manage our project to achieve properly the objectives on time and to budget. • Risk management will be an integral part of the every project lifecycle management process. In this sense, if needed, risk assessments methods will be applied in order to minimize possible deviations from the expected results and schedule.

10. Potential risks • Potential risks can be classified into the following groups: • beneficiary problems (e.g. a partner is underperforming or a key partner is leaving the project) • Expertise risks (e.g. a key person with a specific expertise is leaving the project) • Project execution risks (e.g. key milestones or critical deliverables are delayed) • Agreement risks (e.g. Consortium partners cannot agree because of different interests)

11. Risks management • In order to contain those risks the Project is organised along the following principles: • The project management is structured to ensure smooth communication between technology providers, academia and users, monitoring of progress and keep up to date with evolution. • To ensure the successful completion of the activities and the validity of their results, each work package is managed by a Work Package Management Team (WPMT) and is run as a project in its own right, i.e. contains of planning of work, validation and quality assurance activities.

12. Remedial actions … let’s talk and find the problem. • Conflicts will be solved at the lowest level possible, and preferably amicably. If an agreement cannot be reached at a task or WP level, then the Project coordinator will mediate. If that is not satisfactory, then the Project Management Board (PMB) will take a decision, and if necessary will ask for the authorization of the EC. • Procedures will be provided in the Consortium Agreement to be signed by the partners before the start of the project. This document will formalize the rights, obligations, relationships and procedures within the consortium, as well as any other relevant issue.