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 The Internet Portal for Computer Aided Risk Management

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B.4.4 Management activities

 

Responsible: EURO & AIT

Assistance: ICS, EIAF, IPM, IPA, TUC, NIEB, UBrad, BUTE, all partners

 

The CARiMan Joint Programme of Activities achieves vertical and horizontal integration in its four thematic areas, facilitating the creation and dissemination of new scientific knowledge on all aspects of Risk Management. The management activities aim at

 

1.      Arranging for the sharing of resources between the network participants and the cutting out of duplication, organising exchange of teams, staff relocation, joint management of the knowledge portfolio, etc. (integrating activities).

2.      Coordinating the research work and development tasks defined in the JPA and included in this proposal (research activities).

3.      Carrying out activities to spread excellence, for example training of researchers and other key staff, or dissemination and technology transfer to industry.

4.      Securing the flawless and professional project management of the project, including the financial management, employing professional project management expertise, proficient conflict resolution procedures and liasing with the European Commission.

 

Thus, the primary management components for the above activities, as these activities are presented in the JPA, are the following:

 

·        A Governing Council (GC) to strategically manage and oversee the integrating activities.

·        A Management Board (MB) to manage strategic and technical issues including conflict resolution.

·        A Scientific Management Committee (SMC) to manage the scientific and technological activities.

·        The Thematic Area Management Boards (TAMB) to organize the internal affairs of the thematic areas.

·        An Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) to manage activities to spread excellence.

 

Below we describe these components, and identify who will carry out each. We also show the relevance and contribution of the management component to the project’s organization and management plans described in section B.7. (see Figure B.4.4-1).

 

 

 

Figure B.4.4-1. CARiMan’s Management Structure

 

Governing Council (GC)

 

The Governing Council will comprise the senior representatives of the partners and oversee integration of the partners’ activities. The governing council will contain one official from each partner organisation, responsible for the funding and the supervision of the research group participating in CARiMan. The GC will deal with the strategic issues of CARiMan and represent the ultimate authority for all types of decision.

 

For decision-making purposes, each partner will have one vote. It will interact and vote through virtual meetings with the help of teleconference and secure voting facilities. Physical meetings will also be held when needed. The GC will appoint the representatives of the Management Board. The GC will have the power to revise the Consortium Agreement, decide on changes in the partnership and decide on all issues in which collective responsibility is involved.

 

The GC members may refer to their institutions' authorities (such as the university rector or one of his direct representatives), when needed. This might be the case when decisions require the presence at meetings of a representative from their own institutions' administration. In this case, the representative will act in place of the member inside the GC for votes or decisions about crucial and long-term changes in the network activities.

 

Such circumstances may be modifications in the IPR management, in the academic status of researchers or in financial rules. For example: a group of partners may decide to create a new doctoral school with a common curriculum. This should be reflected in the internal administration rules of each institution, something that might be beyond the decision-making powers of the GC members. Thus for the vote the members are replaced or specifically mandated by their authorities' representatives.

 

This involvement rule may be used not only in exceptional circumstances but also at each step in the consortium's integration when the institutions will have to modify their modus operandi to achieve a higher degree of integration and European co-operation.

 

·        The meetings of the GC will be chaired by the Network Director (ND), Prof. Michalis Zervakis. Prof. Zervakis,  director of the Digital Image and Signal Processing Laboratory (DISPLAY) at the Technical University of Crete.

 

Management Board (MB)

 

The Management Board will deal with both strategic and technical issues and be responsible for the decision making on strategic phases of CARiMan and for conflict resolution. The MB will hold physical meetings near the completion of milestones, and will utilize extensive electronic communications. The MB will be headed by the Network Director (ND), and will include the Project Manager (PM), two Scientific Managers (SM) representing the thematic areas, the Financial Manager (FM), the Dissemination Manager, and at least one Managerial Assistant (AM). The members of the MB will be geographically spread as evenly as possible. A combination of frequent on-line progress meetings, regular face-to-face meetings and monthly progress reports will create a clear view of the network’s progress.

 

The MB will have to be approved by a two-third majority of the GC to assume office. If one of the permanent members resigns, the GC will appoint one replacing member. The MB will allocate the funding to partners according to the advice given by the GC and the SMC, the costs, and the human resources involved. The MB will observe and verify the implementation of the work programme by the partners. The MB will take the necessary decisions to minimise the impact of any conflicts that may arise between partners. It will reassign tasks that are not completed by a partner in the best interest of the network's goals.

 

The initial MB will include:

 

·        the Network Director (ND), Prof. Michalis Zervakis, as the head of the MB.

·        The Project Manager (PM), Dr.-Ing., Dipl.-Math. Günther Roscher, General Manager, ICS Dr. G.  Roscher GmbH (ICS), Germany.

·        One elected representative from each Thematic Area Management Boards (TAMB).

·        The Financial Manager (FM), Prof. Pierre Kuonen, University of Applied Sciences of Fribourg (EIAF), Switzerland. (For the FM activity, Euroconsultants SA will establish a separate accounting system in its premises that would perform the Financial Management and reporting of the project. Euroconsultants, with a 7.5milion turnover in its group of companies has the ability to secure the cooperation and or financial warrantees of banking institutions vis a vis the European Commission.)

·        The Scientific Manager (SM), Dr. Gabriel Vladut, Director, IPA AUTOMATION ENGINEERING, IPA CIFATT Craiova (IPA), Romania.

·        The Dissemination Manager (DM), Birte Kastrup Rasmussen, IPM Management A/S (IPM), Danmark

 

Scientific Management Committee (SMC)

The Scientific Committee is responsible for the scientific and technological strategy and will receive and evaluate proposals of new workpackages or research tasks from partners and JPA leaders. Certain cut-off dates for evaluation will be decided according to the project’s progress. An evaluation report will be sent to the MB with advice on the relevance of the new WPs and the amount of work and investment required. SMC decisions will preferably be taken unanimously, or, if not possible, by majority. SMC meetings will be held at least twice a year. Intensive use of secure intranet communications is also foreseen. The SMC will be composed of one elected representative from each Thematic Area Management Boards (TAMB), and external members selected for their excellence in the risk management field. At least one of the external members will be selected outside the European Community. The SMC will then elect two Scientific Managers (SM), one form the applications and the other from the IT sectors, to participate in the Management Board.

 

Thematic Area Management Boards (TAMB)

The five thematic areas (Information Technologies, Health Care, Civil Protection, Natural disasters/Environment, Other issues) of CARiMan will organize their internal affairs through Thematic Area Management Boards. The TAMB will be able to closely monitor and manage the work of the partners. This would not be possible by a management component covering all the project, as CARiMan is a network of significant size. One representative from each partner will be appointed to the TAMB, which will be headed by the Thematic Area Manager (TAM). The TAM will be elected once a year. A second elected representative of the TAMB will be the Scientific Area Manager (SAM), who will also be elected once a year and represent the TAMB in the SMC.

 
Industrial Advisory Board (IAB)

The IAB will study the needs to invite new members from the industrial world inside the CARiMan network and analyse requests from external companies to join the CARiMan network. In both cases, the final decision will be taken by the MB. The IAB will also manage the problems that may arise following developments of the CARiMan research leading to industrial development.

 
Day-to-day management

The Network Director (ND) is responsible for the external presentation of the Network of Excellence CARiMan and the communication with the European Commission.

The Project Manager (PM) will be in charge of the day-to-day management and will ensure a smooth running and coordination of the network. The resolution of conflicts between partners and the major decisions will be forwarded to the Management Board. Decisions involving scientific excellence evaluation will be in the hands of the Management Board, acting pursuant to advice from the Scientific Committee.

 

CARiMan will keep a 'gender equality openness' attitude for all jobs, without resorting to any 'positive discrimination' measure that could decrease excellence.

For the relating supervising position Dr. Cornelia Kozmutza, Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE) Faculty of Natural Sciences, Hungaria, is proposed as responsible partner for part B.10  of the project.

 

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