Project management and exploitation/dissemination plans

Our team has defined a core coordinating group of three participants, including the main coordinator of the project. The two assistant coordinators (Jonathan Ewbank and Patty Kuwabara) will assist the main coordinator (Nektarios Tavernarakis; see diagram). The coordinating team will maintain close contact with all participants, at all times. In addition to continuous contact via email and conference calls, regular gatherings of all participants will be held, for global planning and progress assessment; also meetings involving subgroups with related research priorities. Overall, our management of the network will be structured in such a way as to reinforce the bonds between participating institutions, aiming to establish long lasting links between research groups.

A mid-term review of the progress of the project may be instigated by the Commission services and organized by the coordinator and representatives of all the participants. The Commission may be assisted by external experts who shall be subject to confidentiality agreements. In case such review will be performed, it shall take place between months 15 and 20 of the project. The Commission services and the coordinator will agree upon the date and the agenda for the review at least two months in advance.

Management strategy

Each workpackage will be managed by a named Participant and the programme as a whole will be managed by the coordinator. The management strategy has the objectives of ensuring that:

·         all actions involved in the project are Coordinated, all milestones are achieved and all deliverables are completed on schedule

·         high and uniform quality standards for scientific procedure, methodology, analysis and ethical practice are maintained across the program

·         the research program provides, disseminates and exploits outputs of practical benefit towards the improvement of health and quality of life

·         the consortium activities will be in concordance with EU regulations specified in the Contract and the Consortium Agreement

·         gender equality is promoted in the project

A formal agreement will be made among the participants to form a Consortium with shared responsibility for the achievement of the above objectives, making specific provisions for the following:

·         The organization of collaborative research projects.

·         Consortium and bilateral meetings and visits; quality assurance and progress monitoring measures.

·         Intellectual property regulation and financial procedures.

Decision-making structures, communication flow and quality assurance

The coordinator will be the formal contact person between the responsible EU official and the participating participants. The coordinator will maintain an audit system for tracking deliverables and seeking advance warning of problems requiring resolution. Revised plans for workpackage schedules and deliverables will be subject to approval by the Consortium. Decisions within the Consortium will normally be made via communication between the coordinator and the individual participants. If differences of opinion arise concerning important issues, these will be discussed by the participants and resolved collectively. Should disagreement persist, decisions will be made by formal majority vote. Any Participant will be able to call, on due notice, for the Consortium to formally consider specific proposals, issues or disputes. In Consortium decision-making, each Participant will have one vote and a simple majority will carry decisions. As part of the formal agreement, participants will agree to abide by decisions made by the Consortium and will take all reasonable steps to implement such decisions. Communication will be facilitated by the electronic mail network that has been set up and is already in extensive use among the participants. Regular bilateral and multilateral data-exchange will be organized as a central element of the structure of the proposed research. Co-ordination of methodology transfer will be facilitated by short-term visits of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Financial and administrative management

The coordinator will make advance arrangements with the National Bank of Greece, where funds allocated by the EU will be first deposited. The coordinator will then ensure that the appropriate funds are dispersed to the Participants' accounts, which will be designated in advance by each Participant. The extensive experience of the Administrative Services department at the coordinator's institution (handling of previous EU programs in FP4 and FP5), will be utilized to secure the success of this program. The Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH) is an experienced Participant of the European Union, with an excellent track-record in the management of previous and ongoing EU programs. The coordinator will collect and process cost statements and scientific reports from Participants, monitor finances and enforce the EU financial guidelines.

Meetings visits and communication

The Consortium will hold annual, formal meetings during the program, which will be conducted to agreed agendas. The Annual Meeting will be the primary forum of scientific exchange. At these meetings, each Participant will report their work and the current status of the research in relation to milestones, deliverables and ethical compliance, will be critically reviewed. During the Annual Meeting a separate session will be allocated to discuss legal, ethical, contractual, financial and administrative matters. Collaboration, exchange and potential enhancements of forthcoming work will be discussed. In addition to the Annual Meetings, bilateral visits and discussions among Participants will be organized. Short-term visits, as described below, and additional meetings of the Participants at major scientific conferences are planned to provide further opportunities for collaboration. The research tasks of this proposal require the complementary expertise of the individual research groups. To exploit fully the complementary expertise of the participating researchers, the joint projects will ensure frequent exchange visits of co-workers between the laboratories throughout the project lifetime. This will be implemented by short-term visits ranging from 2 weeks to 3 months, according to specific requirements. These visits will facilitate the transfer of new methods and techniques among the participating groups. A program of graduate student exchange will be established as part of their training, enhancing the effective co-ordination and exchange of methodology among the different laboratories. This collaborative approach will maximize the use of the unique facilities and links of the individual institutions.

Reports, publications/patents and distribution of materials

The coordinator will compile annual reports to the Commission including cost statements, reports of Consortium Annual Meetings and scientific reports from Participants. Drafts of publications resulting from the whole of the project will be distributed to all Consortium Participants at the time of submission. Before publication, the information will be treated as confidential to Consortium Participants. It is expected that the project will result in a number of new findings, which have to be protected by filing patents. Patent filing will not be allowed to significantly delay the submission of manuscripts. The actual length of period will be subject to negotiations between the parties. Patents will be the property of the group that made the discovery. If more than one group contributes to the patent, the percentage rights will be negotiated among the inventors. All aspects of intellectual property rights and specific exploitation strategies arising from this work will be further specified in detail in the Consortium Agreement prior to the start of the project.

We will establish the necessary infrastructure to manage, maintain and distribute large numbers of mutant strains and reagents. A strain and reagent depository will be set up within the consortium, for the needs of the project. We will also interface with the central repository of nematode strains the Caenorhabditis elegans Genetics Center (CGC; http://biosci.umn.edu/CGC/CGChomepage.htm), and other resources of materials pertinent to C. elegans functional genomics such as the C. elegans Gene Knockout Consortium (http://elegans.bcgsc.bc.ca/knockout.shtml).

Internet presence

The network will set up an interactive internet web site, managed by the coordinator and selected participants, which will contain various information such as description of the project, objectives workpackages and deliverables, contact information of participants, and information about the infrastructure, facilities and their availability for shared use. We also plan to catalogue online scientific reagents (vectors, constructs, strains, etc.) available from individual laboratories, general and specialized protocols developed and tested by researchers in our consortium, as well as full text publications, and patents related to our activities. We will also list open positions, links to other web sites of interest and interim results. In addition, we will establish an online forum for electronic communication between participants and finally an online database of available mutant nematode strains with transposon-tagged alleles. We will also interface with other related online resources such as WormBase (http://www.wormbase.org/) and the Caenorhabditis elegans Genetics Center (http://biosci.umn.edu/CGC/CGChomepage.htm). We note here that two European mirrors of The C. elegans WWW server and Wormbase are already operational at the coordinator’s site (http://elegans.imbb.forth.gr/ and http://wormbase.imbb.forth.gr/).