Work package 8

Project coordination and overall management

WP leader: Nigel Scollan, Aberystwyth University, UK. Email: ngs@aber.ac.uk

Objectives of work package 8

The coordination and overall management of the SOLID project will utilise the integrated project management expertise of staff at ABER. The research and support staff involved at ABER have successful and recent collaborative experience on framework programme funded projects (e.g. FP7-KBBE-2008-1-2-01 (BioBio),
FP7-KBBE-2007-1-2-08 (Rednex), and FP6-036241-2 (ProSafeBeef)).
The overall coordination will be the responsibility of Aberystwyth University who will be the legal entity responsible for all contractual arrangements and reporting to the EC. The Coordinator, will have overall responsibility for operational, technical and financial management, and will oversee a Project Administrator who will be in charge of the operational management on a day-to-day basis and managing the financial administration (collecting information from the partners, consolidation of quarterly management reports, monitoring of expenses against budget allocations, consolidation of financial summary sheets, etc.) in support. The Project Administrator
role will be undertaken by a person appointed by the Project Coordinator and will be based at ABER.

The Administrator will be qualified in Prince2 Project Management methodology. The administration of payments from the EC and the transfer of funds to the partners will be managed by senior staff experienced in framework programme financial administration at the coordinating body’s Finance Department (ABER). Matters relating to the protection of Intellectual Property will also be supported by specialist staff at ABER.

The responsibilities of the Coordinator, the Governing Council, the Executive Committee and the Project Administrator are described in section 2.1, which also describes the project management structure and procedures. In the first 6 months a range of activities will focus on ‘starting-up’ the project through the establishment of efficient project management structures and processes: formation of a collaborative workspace, agreement on project management guidelines, and commencement of associated project governance meetings.

The overall management plan for this project is aimed at achieving six main objectives:

  • Co-ordination of financial activities according to the work plan
  • Monitoring results to control their scientific quality regarding the fulfilment of the planned objectives, quality of the result, timing, spent resources and worldwide state of the art
  • Efficiency of the organisation setup to support the project, with special attention paid to financial logistics, information, coordination issues, quality and conformity to EC rules and procedures
  • Monitoring of gender equality, ethical and researcher training aspects
  • Monitoring and mitigation of project risks, and quality assurance
  • Prepare the financial and technical reports for the Commission.