WP8. Management

The STELLARnet Executive Board (EB) comprises the formal operational, legal and financial management of the network. They will be responsible for all strategic decisions and the risk management in response to our quality assurance and evaluation measures. We will keep the Management of the Network, light, simple and effective – with a strong executive and open virtual meetings wherever possible (following on from our experience with Prolearn).

The EB delegates to an Executive team the regular operation and communication of executive decision-making in the network. It oversees and approves the work of the Executive in regular (virtual) meetings, and at least once a year physically, at a General Assembly. The EB is formally responsible for appointing and approving the decisions of all STELLARnet committees.

The management of STELLARnet is described in detail in Section B2.1. The work of WP8 is focused on the Executive team that takes delegated responsibility from the EB. The day-to-day Network operation will be performed by the General Manager under the supervision of the Coordinator at the UKOU. The work package has 3 main tasks.

Task 1 - Operational Management

The role of operational management will ensure the effective running of the network, and the seamless integration of all activities performed in this community.

  1. Communication with the EC and Coordination of Reporting: This includes
    • reporting to the European Commission;
    • coordinating the yearly activity reports (research, training, transfer and dissemination activities and advancements, problems and corrective actions, social issue reports, audit statements);
    • coordinating the final report (analysis of the durability of the integration, assessment of the impact of the Network for spreading excellence and integrating research, assessment of network actions to promote gender equality, sustainable actions and recommendations after the end of the Network).
  2. Conflict Resolution and Management of Risk: The network consortium will follow a collaborative approach for avoiding conflicts. The Network participants have already significant large-group management experience from the previous Networks of Excellence. Conflicts will be passed to a meeting of the Executive Board and resolved by a majority vote of all members of the Executive Board, as per the Consortium Agreement.
  3. Tracking progress of the Joint Programme of Activities based on the timely input of the work package leaders and the other Network consortium members.

Furthermore, the Executive Board is responsible for the integration of new partners into the Network, the acceptance of new work packages, the finalization of existing work packages and the establishment of required advisory panels.

The EB instructs the General Manager to carry out the respective tasks and to prepare the EB decisions, the organization and preparation of EB meetings, etc. On behalf of the EB, the General Manager, supported by the quality assurance and evaluation team (ZSI), supervises the WPs in all organizational and administrative activities and reports directly to the EB. The General Manager prepares all reports for the Commission and carries out respective tasks, such as the collection of regular reports from the WP leaders, etc. All WP leaders are responsible for turning their WP reports in time.

For the EU, the STELLARnet Coordinator functions as link between the Commission and all STELLARnet partners and informs both the EB and the Commission respectively about new developments within the Network and the Commission, and submits all reports which are prepared with the help of General Manager, as well as the work package leaders and the other participating members.

Task 2 - Financial Management

The Executive Board and especially the General Manager will be in charge of the project financial management (with the assistance of the Administrative Manager). This will include:

  • Accounting and preparation of budget based on the Joint Programme of Activities;
  • Distribution of money to the Network participants;
  • Financial controlling, timely collection of audits and reporting to the EC;
  • Monitoring income and expense plan execution.

Task 3 - Legal Management

This task includes all legal aspects for setting up and running STELLARnet. Specifically, this will involve

  • Negotiations and monitoring of consortium agreement;
  • Negotiations and solutions for legal relationships among Network members and between Network members and external organisations;
  • Intellectual Property management: Here the partners intend to co-operate at Network level with respect to the management of all matters relating to the protection and exploitation of all knowledge arising from STELLARnet research and of the intellectual property rights pertaining to such knowledge, with the view to promote innovation. Again, this will take into account the FP7 rules and regulations on IPR.