Effective project management (including partners' communication, monitoring progress and financial management)- Input from workshops Compiled by Paola Pittia, Irina Gerashchenko, Mark Frederiks and Joe English 24 January 2012 Brussels

Project Management Good Practices: Consortium individual agreement signed with each partner before project commences. Several partners (work-package leaders, etc) involved in decision making. Sub-set of consortium in steering committee. Issue of ‘’sleeping partners’’ to be dealt as soon as the issue arises, or even before, for instance in the kick off meeting. Define management tools to be used from project outset (dropbox, sharepoint, moodle, Skype, private part of website, Svn/Trac etc. etc.) and provide training if necessary.

Partners’ Communication Communication must be frequent and effective. Set up regular conferences/video meetings. Use existing management tools (dropbox, sharepoint, moodle, Skype, private part of website, svn). Identify the tools to exchange information between partners at the earliest opportunity. Ensure controls in place for document management and sharing. Be aware of data protection implications and legislation.

Monitoring Progress External evaluation very valuable and to be shared within the consortium. Continuous internal/external evaluation. Define Key performance indicators & define standards. Withholding funding until partners deliver as option. Quality of the products – intermediate validation workshop. Common committeemen on reporting between coordinator and partners, Timely reporting using standardised templates – provide templates at project commencement (outputs, finance, timesheets etc.).

Financial management Share information from the Agency within the consortia. Training for coordinator/financial manager as early as possible (before the 1st meeting). Timely inform the Agency of relevant issues. Frequent financial reports from partners to be defined in the agreement).