Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 1 THE ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI ISO 9001:2000 and AUTH Research Committee Christina Besta, Chief Executive Officer of Research Committee Nikolas Georgiadis, Manager of quality assurance

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 2 THE ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI The largest University in Greece  Students  Academic staff (teaching – research)  Technical and administrative staff  42 Departments into 12 Faculties

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 3  Carries out  Research and Technological Development RTD Projects  In the scientific areas of: environmentinformaticstelecommunications technologies for industry transportbiotechnology biomedicine and health agriculture, forestry and fisheries education and languages history and archaeology social and economic sciences THE ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 4 The research funding

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 5 The Human Potential  out of members of the teaching and research staff participate in RTD projects  external co-operators, scientists and technicians have been employed in the last 3 years

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 6 What is the Research Committee (RC)? It is an academic institution for the management of research and related activities within the University

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 7 The mission of the Research Committee The Research Committee serves all specific needs of the research activities produced within and by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, by:  Designing and implementing research policies  Allocating and managing external funding  Facilitating synergy between research and teaching

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 8  A funded project is a well-planned scientific activity, characterized by:  a specific discipline  a well defined objective  a set timetable  a certain methodology  a cost break down  an expected result What is a funded project?

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 9 Project Types  Research & Technological  Educational  Training  Consulting and provision of scientific services

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 10 The RC Project Management cycle  The stages  Project planning - compose the proposal – submission  Evaluation of the proposal - approval by the funding agency or organization  Implementation of the project  Evaluation of the results - suggestions for their exploitation

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 11 Administrative structure  It is the authority responsible for mapping out the research policy of the University as well as other relevant activities a. The Research Committee b. The Secretariat  It is the authority responsible for the approval and allocation of the funds for the implementation of the research projects  It is the authority qualified to draw up the annual financial and scientific planning and reports  It is the authority in charge to safeguard the operation and the development of the special account  Supervision of the accounting and management turnover of the special account  Implementation and administrative processing of the Research Committee’s decisions  Suggestions and cooperation on issues relative to the operation and development of the special account The legal framework for managing research in Greek Universities (Called “The Special Account of Research Funds”, a.k.a. “Special Account”)

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 12 Administrative structure  It is the authority responsible for mapping out the research policy of the University as well as other relevant activities a. The Research Committee b. The Secretariat  It is the authority responsible for the approval and allocation of the funds for the implementation of the research projects  It is the authority qualified to draw up the annual financial and scientific planning and reports  It is the authority in charge to assure the right operation and the development of the Special Account  Supervision of the accounting and management turnover of the special account  Implementation of the Research Committee’s decisions  Proposals Submission relative to the operation and development of the Special Account

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 13 Organizational chart of the Secretariat of the Research Committee

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 14 The Business Plan  Planning the targets and actions of the next three years for the implementation of the research strategy VISION STRATEGY BUSINESS PLAN

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 15 Synthesis and selection of a strategy Strategy Strengths (+) Threats (-) Weaknesses (-) Opportunities (+) Internal environment External environment

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 16 What is the research strategy?  The major strategic objective is  Excellence  At the core of the research strategy lies the promotion of Quality of the research activity

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 17 A Strategy for Quality of the RC  The Research Committee succeed to receive the ISO 9001:2000 Certificate in November 2002  16 research laboratories are in the process of obtaining an ISO quality certificate

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 18 The development of the Quality Management System was based on: 1. Mapping the current situation 2. Identifying the weaknesses 3. Establishing the Quality policy 4. Setting the objective goals of Quality, and 5. Identifying the processes that rule the operation of the organization and the proper evaluation of these processes. The quality management system in RC

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 19 The major ideas behind the Quality Policy of the Research Committee are:  The creation of an attraction point for Funding Agencies or Institutions  The deployment of new activities in the field of research and  exploitation of research results RC Quality Policy

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 20 RC’s Quality Policy implemented at three parallel levels:  1 st level: Operational improvement  2 nd level: Customer satisfaction  3 rd level: expanding our activities

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 21 The Quality Objectives promote the “three year” business objectives, as stated in the Business Plan that materializes the research strategy RC Quality Objectives

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 22 The quality operation of the Research Committee Quality management system Transaction system Information system Administrative-financial- accounting management system Customer management system Integration, flexibility and quality assurance in research management activities Assuring quality in management service One stop service Legal base in management service Customer Satisfaction Providing services anytime & anywhere The systems and their targets

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 23 Towards our Quality Policy We confronted the mentality of the traditional public sector; therefore:

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 24 Towards our Quality Policy  We gave emphasis on human resources  Staff training  Staff evaluation  Work delegation  We gave emphasis on the work environment and the use of technology

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 25 Towards our Quality Policy  We gave emphasis on developing a system of procedures and guidelines, covering all organizational tasks  We gave emphasis on the demands, problems and needs of our  Customers and  Collaborators

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 26 Towards our Quality Policy  We paid special attention upon:  Creating the final link of every procedure chain, thus assuring production of results  Appointing owners to every procedure  Measuring every task, according to its linked objective  Establishing performance indices, that where ranked in a mechanism that measures the total performance of the Quality Management System

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 27 What did we achieve through ISO ?  Transforming traditional work culture into a culture of quality  Obtaining a constantly evolving Organization; strength against external changes

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 28 Future Objectives  Measuring the added value of the Quality Management System’s operation, and comparing it with the old system

Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 29 Thank you for your attention