Management

Main responsibility for coordination and management rests with YSU as a project contractor. YSU will appoint a project manager (PM) to carry out overall executive management. To ensure an accurate and effective management on a daily basis, a project management team, responsible for financial, operational and day-to-day management and keeping track records of all project activities, will be formed at YSU.

A Project Steering Committee (PSC) will be established during the kick-off meeting with responsibility of making ultimate decisions. PSC will involve per one representative from each partner and will meet biannually in order to review the project progress and its performance and to make necessary changes if needed. To give all partners opportunity to participate in decision-making process PSC will take collective decisions by consensus voting. All decisions will be reproducible, i.e. documented in order to avoid misunderstanding or possible conflicts. To avoid excessive disputes in case of disagreement among PSC members an additional vote will be allocated to the chairman.

To facilitate communication with and within countries and administrative execution of the project in national context 3 national and 1 European coordinators will be nominated who will work and communicate with 15 institutional contact persons and teams and periodically report to PM.

Project scope management will be carried out through WP lead partners (LP) who will take care of WP implementation and reporting on the achievements. This ensures active involvement of all partners and sense of ownership. LPs will take responsibility for achieving objectives of WP and overseeing its timely and effective implementation. LPs will create and manage special task forces involving members from all partners to carry out WP activities.

Formal communication channels will be organised through periodic coordination and status meetings, and regular communication. The project will commence with kick-off meeting at YSU to inform and engage all partners, introduce contract obligations and rights, refine division of tasks, clarify roles and responsibilities. PCS will have 6 coordination meetings to inform on project status, review progress and accomplishment of milestones, make needed changes and decisions. It will conduct also monthly virtual status meetings via web-conferencing to address any issues and get feedback from partners. Meetings will be documented and minutes distributed. Regular communication will be conducted by e-mail and shared electronic database and a network drive to store and distribute information.  

A detailed and careful distribution of responsibilities, tasks and the budget documented in bilateral contracts will prevent from major work conflicts. During the implementation peer-reviews and decisions of PSC will be utilized for conflict resolution. Emphasizing team building, creating environment that respects diversity and equality and developing win-win strategies will be used to solve personality conflicts.