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Network of Excellence |
CARiMan |
The Internet Portal for Computer Aided Risk Management |
B.4.4
Management activities
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.