Management structure and procedures
The objectives and the number of participants of Zephyr require a strong and coherent management structure and organisation; the management processes and procedures are designed to:
- manage and support the full consortium team i.e., in terms of relevance of the work, its quality and its coherence;
- manage and support the full consortium team financially and administratively i.e., in terms of keeping to timescale, effective use and suitable reporting of budget resources;
- liaise effectively with the European Commission on all matters of strategy, relevance, scientific quality, timescale, administration, reporting, and budget.
The project is coordinated by TUSCIA University - DAFNE Department; the Coordinator is Prof. Bartolomeo Schirone
The structure and organisation of management activities are presented in a matrix organisation and will be adopted in order to provide high flexibility and adaptability in changing conditions. The matrix organisation is taking advantage of the benefits of a pureproject organisation while maintaining the advantages of the functional organisations.
All partners will sign a consortium agreement before the signature of the EC Grant Agreement. It refines all the management specific arrangements (quorum, voting principles, roles, decision making process, entry of new contractors into the consortium, definition of property rights etc.) of the Zephyr consortium and will serve as the basis for the final negotiations before the contract signature with the Commission. Some elements of the consortium agreement definitions and the decision making process are presented into the following organisation components.
The project will be supervised by a Steering Committee (SC) composed of representatives of the partners and representing the highest decision-making authority of the project, and administered by a Project Coordination Committee (PCC), composed of the Coordinator and 2 Assistants, representing the operational decision making body of the consortium; the Consortium Agreement will set out the internal management guidelines for the consortium.
The Steering Committee will not have an operational management role: it will be involved in the case of serious disputes or decisions to be undertaken. The SC will have meeting (also in tele-conference for some partners) each six months, and might meet in extraordinary sessions under the specific request of the PCC, the Project Coordinator (PC) and/or one of the Partners.
The need of having such Steering Committee is dueto guarantee the overall high control of the Zephyr project, while leaving theoperational decision-making process to the PCC for a swift and effective project management. Due to the well-structured nature of the project, there is the high possibility that the SC will not be asked to take any decision over specific requests coming from the PM, the PCC or one of the Partners. Due to approval of the partners, the SC meeting may eventually coincide also with other project meetings.
The Steering Committee voting mechanisms will be based on the following points:
-Each partner in the Steering Committee has one vote
-Decision are taken with majority of votes
-In case of serious disputes among project partners, conflict resolution procedures will be initiated whereby the coordinator will advise the SC that it will have to meet in emergency session to discuss the conflict and reach a resolution,. The Consortium believes that any conflicts will be resolved as speedily as possible so that within 21 days of notification by the Coordinator of the requirement for an emergency procedure, the Steering Committee has to meet in session. The quorum threshold for this meeting will be 90%. The meeting will attempt to achieve full consensus on the resolution of the issue but in any case a majority vote will be taken to determine what resolution will be implemented. In circumstances of persistent and serious conflict that may put the continuation of the project in jeopardy, the SC will consider its options such as involving the EU project officer, seeking external advice followed by a review of the situation and the advice in emergency session for a collective decision in order to implement a final remedy of the issues involved.
