Description of work
T1.1 – Administrative and financial management (CERTH) [M1-M36]
With respect to administrative management the responsibility of this task is to establish a stable management basis and ensure a firm and accepted foundation to the project prior to commencement of the work. This task includes building upon the terms and conditions specified in the Consortium Agreement, define and set up the practical mechanisms which implement the management functions. These include communication between the Steering Board and MAMEM partners, EC officials and external organisations and individuals. Moreover, the administrative management entails also the organization of the consortium meetings, meetings with the advisory board and technical meetings. A set of documents will be generated as described in Section 3.2 supporting management activities (Management Charter, Management Handbook, Communication Plan and Quality Plan). The financial management entails the establishment of a plan ensuring that the expected income, expenditure, and disbursements are clear and verifiable. It also includes reviewing the financial status monthly, report on progress to the Steering Board at quarterly meetings, verifying that audits are carried out for all partners and that audit certificates are received.
T1.2 – Technical and quality management (CERTH) [M1-M36]
The technical management is a repeatable process that aims at monitoring and establishing the specific form and content of each deliverable, resolving what activities are necessary for their creation and delivery and at determining specific dependencies between deliverables. The technical management includes also the monitoring and control activities of the Project Management Board (PMB) and the Project Technical Manager (PTM) in ensuring that a WP stays on course and reacts to unexpected events. The process forms the core of the PTM’s effort on the project since it is the process that handles day-to-day project issues. Throughout a WP there will be a cycle consisting of authorizing work to be done, gathering progress information about that work, watching for changes, reviewing the situation, reporting and taking any necessary corrective action. The role of technical management is to cover these activities, together with the on-going work of risk analysis and contingency planning, change control and bi-monthly reporting to the PMB. To efficiently handle the large volume of project documents (including reports), all project members will use a specialised web-based Document Management Tool supported by the Project Technical Manager and Project Assistant.
The quality management of the project will be implemented through a Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) that will be established with the objective of ensuring high quality outputs of the project activities, thorough review of the project deliverables and regular assessment of the project progress and achievements. The QAP will specify all quality control procedures, including responsibilities of project participants (Project Technical Manager, WP Leaders, Task Leaders and other partners), contract management, documentation control, documentation formats and exchange rules, deliverable assessment, etc. The QAP will ensure that work conforms to the requirements identified in each WP, that the work is done and that completed modules/products/deliverables meet the quality standards set. The QAP will request internal progress reports to be provided by each partner on a quarterly basis summarizing progress, achievements and usage of resources. This task also includes strategic monitoring and possible re-planning of MAMEM activities to ensure all project objectives are achieved on time.
Finally, this task will also undertake the activities related to the management of data that will be generated during the pilot trials (i.e. synchronized signals from an eye tracker, an EEG recorder and a GSR sensor from disabled people that user our novel interfaces to perform multimedia-related tasks). More specifically, we will specify the strategy adopted in MAMEM for making our research data open public and maximize accessibility and re-use. Our preliminary thoughts our already described as part of our exploitation plan (cf. Section 2.2.2)
T1.3 – Management of knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights (CERTH) [M1-M36]
This task deals with the detection and assessment of the knowledge generated by the consortium. This knowledge will be initially identified at the beginning of the project and will be constantly monitored throughout the project’s lifetime based on an IRP plan. Since it is possible that key IPR could be delivered at any time in the project two versions are scheduled. This plan, as it is described in more detail in Section 2.2.3, shows how all WPs will be evaluated for their expected patent applications and software copyrights. This task will also make sure that the necessary steps are taken for protection of this intellectual property, e.g., by ensuring confidentiality of information as necessary, and by the timely filing of patent applications by the appropriate partner.