Management and Coordination

WP1 is the Management and Coordination Work Package of ALF Project and will last for the whole duration of the project. It has one main objective: the management and coordination of all parts of the project to ensure high qualitative standards of transfer and development of knowledge are met. The following strategies are to be pursued: a) Creation and maintenance of a system of control to provide continuous evaluation feedback and project monitoring, b) Creation and maintenance of an effective system of coordination, c) Control about the overall legal, contractual, ethical, financial, and administrative management of the project.

T.1.1. Technical Management and Coordination: Includes all actions aimed to ensure effective and timely implementation of activities and deliverables. This will be achieved by an ongoing oversight of the project. Actions will include: a) Developing a Project Management Plan, b) Partner reviews on activities and project milestones control, c) Assessment of partner’s fulfilment of contractual commitments according to the Grant Agreement and Consortium Agreement, d) Risks assessment and mitigating measures, e) Guidelines and detailed instructions to partners to ensure proper implementation of due tasks and deliverables according to the time schedule, f) Communicating with the Commission about issues related to the contract, g) Recording management activities in order to preparate the Technical Reports for the EC, h) Creating and maintaining the internal project communication channel, and implementation any other essential tools for permanent communication and information of the partners. The Project Management Plan (D.1.1) will consist in the latest updated version of the work-plan, as well as any other useful information to support the management of the project.

T.1.2. Financial and administrative management: Includes all actions ensuring a correct financial management of the project. Actions will include a) Definition and update (if needed) of the budget of the project, b) Periodical financial records for the project, c) Report of the budget expenses as per contractual terms and/or on request of the EC, d) Supply of any document required for contractual payments, e) Reports on contractual payments.

T.1.3. Coordination and Governance: Includes all actions aimed at ensuring that the decision-making process is carried out without problems. This will be achieved by centralising coordination actions in PAO (along with three representatives from the other partners, when needed), who will guarantee a constant and smooth exchange of ideas between the partners. Actions will include: a) Establishing rules for communication among partners, b) Acting against partners who do not respect their contractual duties, c) Evaluating risks and taking major decisions to refocus or terminate activities, d) Nomination of a provisional management unit to take charge of all tasks of WP1 until PAO is officially created an functioning (nomination to take place in the kick-off meeting – M1); e) Nomination of a representative from each other partner (Lisbon, Genoa and Surrey) after PAO is created and functioning.

T.1.4. Consortium meetings and reports: Consortium meetings will be organised every 12 months to review the project management and project work-plan, and to update any part of it where needed. During the kick-off meeting: a) Every partner will i) present their organisation, ii) present their role in the project, and iii) propose a more detailed account of their working methods according to their responsibilities (if needed). b) A draft of the Consortium Agreement will be proposed by Belgrade, and then shared, agreed, and signed by all partners. The exact dates and modality of every Consortium meeting (Months 1, 12, 24 and 36) will be decided according to the availability of the partners and/or the overall general situation.

T.1.5. Overall evaluation: This task includes all actions aimed at assuring a periodical overall evaluation (with results every 3 and/or six months). Actions will include a) Inform the evaluation process and implementations, b) Evaluation of main deliverables and training materials and processes, c) Evaluation of overall project management (WP1), d) Evaluation of overall advancement of academic knowledge transfer (WP3, WP4, WP5) and autonomous research (WP6)