WP 1 : Management

The General Assembly (GA) is composed of one high-level representative from each partner of the consortium. It approves/disapproves by consensus major policy decisions proposed by the Executive Committee. A chairperson of the GA is elected among its members. For checks and balances, the coordinator shall not stand for election of the chairperson of the GA.

The coordinator shall be the chairperson of the Executive Committee and runs the project on a day-to day basis together with the help of the members of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee verifies that each Contractor carries out the work according to the specifications and schedule set out in the technical annex to the contract. The co-ordinator will also verify that the cost statements of the project Contractors correspond to the work described in the accompanying progress reports. The practical organisation of the project management is outlined below

Each Contractor in LWR-DEPUTY will assign a scientific responsible person for the work carried out by his Institute. The scientific persons-in-charge will meet during the progress meetings at the intervals indicated in the time-table (Figure 2 GANTT chart). At these meetings, the progress of the project as a whole and the quality of the performed work will be presented and evaluated, and decisions on future actions to be taken are discussed. Important decisions on the reallocation of budget, re-orientation of objectives are taken at these meetings. They also serve as the basis to prepare the semi-annual and annual reports, and to discuss administrative aspects (for instance, presentation at conferences, collaboration with other interested institutes).

Given the volume of work envisaged in LWR-DEPUTY and the number of institutes involved, the day-to-day progress is organised at the level of the work packages. The activities of LWR-DEPUTY are organized in four Work Packages (1 to 4). Each Work Package has its work package leader (see Table 4) and they establish the project Working Group.

The day-to-day follow-up of the project progress is done by the scientific responsible together with his/her work package leader. The project Working Group will together with the co-ordinator check on a regular basis (intermittent to the Progress Meetings) whether the time-schedule is followed, if delays are to be expected, what will be the effect of the delay on the overall time-schedule and if the milestones are reached. The Working Group will report during the Progress Meetings, and make proposals for personnel and resources reallocation to prevent or to shorten delays.

The contractors agreed that the coordinator be SCK•CEN. To make the coordination easier, the activities will be shared between the coordinating officer and a technical secretary working together in close collaboration (drafting of the minutes of the meetings, budget affairs, organization of the review meetings, registration of the Consortium documents, contacts with the European Commission, etc.). The financial and contractual aspects of the coordinators role is further taken care of by the accounting service (cost statements, payment of contractors) and the legal service (contractual aspects, confidence agreements) of the project coordinator (SCK•CEN), which both have a long experience with the administration of EU co-funded projects.

Table 4 Working group structure: