Administrative Capacity Building, Project Administration Office and Centre for Legal Fundamentals

WP2 has four main objectives: 1) Creating the Project Administration Office (PAO) within BGL; 2) Creating the Centre for Legal Fundamentals (CLF) within BGL; 3) Improving BGL administrative staff skills in project proposal preparation and project management/administration; 4) Theoretical and practical sharing of knowledge on EU project management. PAO will fill the gap to raise the bar for excellence of all R&I actors in these countries by the end of the project and beyond. CLF will provide the organizational framework for research within the project and for further, autonomous research at BGL. This will be done by fully utilising the experience and best practices of ICJP/FDUL, UniGe, and US. The following strategies are to be pursued: a) Meeting administrative requirements to create PAO, b) Meeting administrative requirements to establish CLF, c) Training members of the administrative staff of BGL in every aspect of management and coordination of research projects, d) Training members of the administrative staff of BGL in every aspect of organisation and development of national and international events. The impact of this WP will be a) An increased set of skills, both research-related and transferable ones, leading to improved employability and career prospects, b) Strengthening of international and intersectoral collaborative networks, c) Boosting of R&I capacity among participating organisations, mainly BGL.

Target/stakeholders: I) Belgrade Affiliated Staff (Administrative Staff)

T.2.1. Creation and equipment of PAO: This task includes all actions aimed at the creation of PAO, and its consolidation as BGL project office. PAO will be capable of 1) managing the implementation of ALF; 2) designing follow-up projects; 3) handling call following, project designs, project proposals and project implementation. The creation and consolidation of PAO will be assisted by expert staff and a committee of representatives of Lisbon, Genoa, and Surrey from the other partners. PAO will oversee ALF technical management, financial and administrative management, coordination and governance, control, and evaluation. Steps towards the creation of PAO will be discussed and set up in the kick-off meeting, within Month 1 of the project. Additionally, a provisional management unit will be nominated to take charge of all the tasks of WP1 until PAO is officially created, within Month 3. BGL will provide office space in need of equipping with basic technical utilities needed for the operation of staff members (computers, scanners, and printers).

T.2.2 Creation and equipment of CLF: Centre for Legal Fundamentals (CLF) will be formed within the BGL. CLF will 1) act as a central hub for research and teaching in the domain of legal fundamentals, 2) provide administrative support to researchers and teachers in legal fundamentals, 3) provide a gathering point for carrying out the research project envisioned in WP6, 4) organizing international scientific events (seminars, conferences etc.), 5) periodically revise existing course curricula based on ALF results and research results. BGL will provide office space for senior and young researchers engaged with ALF in general and research project “Practically oriented legal fundamentals” (see WP6), in need of equipping with conferencing equipment for remote work, as well as technical utilities needed for conducting research (laptop and desktop computers, scanners and printers).

T.2.3. Analysis of different approaches in project management and practices: Actions will include a) Meetings between the Consortium administrative staff to analyse the different approaches in the project management and practices, b) Establishing the best objective approaches to project management and practices, c) Establishing the best approaches to project management and practices for the University of Belgrade.

T.2.4. Capacity building of the administrative staff: All actions aimed at ensuring a smooth and adequate transferral of administrative and logistic knowledge to BGL from each of the other project partners, to enable BGL to develop autonomous research projects either on foundational legal topics and/or, more general or more specific topics and approaches. BGL administrative staff will receive tailored training on research support, good practices regarding how to follow, guide, and help researchers, grant writing and feedback, and more. Actions will include a) Training in how to write a complete and successful proposal. Training in analysis of different calls and work programmes, and their link with the overall objectives and policies at the EC level; practical exercises with a simulation of proposal writing; specific focus on transversal skills such as Intellectual propriety, Open Science (open access to publication, open research data, Research Data Management), Gender aspects, Security and Ethical issues, etc. b) Training in how to manage a funded project. Training in financial and legal aspects (e.g., discussion on the Model Grant Agreement); practical elaboration of a Financial Statement; information and practices on how to deal with an audit procedure from the Commission; etc. c) Training on how to prepare researchers. Coaching on good practices regarding how to follow, guide, and help researchers – e.g. masterclasses on submissions of MSCA PF or ERC Grants & preparation through mock interviews and support grants of ERC candidates which have passed the first step in a ERC Project (Bando Boosting Excellence 2021); participation in meetings where project office members give feedback to EU project drafters; etc. d) One-to-one virtual meetings with the various “segments” of research support (e.g., the Facilitators, Strategic Bid Managers, Pre Awards team, etc.) To guarantee maximum access for BGL administrative staff to every single opportunity of training, most training actions will be virtual.

T.2.5. Short-term staff exchanges: As part of the capacity building as well as establishing and securing a solid network between administrative project offices, there will short-term administrative staff exchanges from Belgrade to other project partner offices. The exchange will BGL administrative staff, especially those working in the PAO, on-site practical one-on-one training by members of the other project partner offices, including shadow project drafting, evaluation, and management. The availability and general possibility of such exchanges, as well as their overall time schedule, will be evaluated case-by-case in each Consortium Meetings.