WP8 – Staff coherence and quality control

Work package leader: Michal Žurovec

Objective of WP8 is to integrate research teams into efficient and sustained staff capable of critical self-evaluation and acceptance of measures for further improvements. Learn from the experience of the partnering institutions to improve research management, strategic planning, networking and practical exploitation of findings. The quality of project realization will be evaluated at several levels: With participation of partners (T 8.1), at the level of project management (T 8.2) and at the level of all staff (T 8.3).

Main tasks

T 8.1: Evaluation of project management

Evaluation of project management by MC will be done by the Steering Committee at its kick-off meeting, at the end of the 1st reporting period and at the final meeting. MODBIOLIN web page and the minutes from MC meetings will be used for this evaluation. Project management will also be reviewed in the middle of each reporting period with participation of the Advisory Board (AB) that is the highest quality control body composed of top research managers of the partnering institutions (see WP1). Several indices will be used as quality measures: The efficiency of infrastructure building and exploitation will be assessed from the efficiency of instrument use and share, extent of collaboration within ERA, and the score of publications generated with the aid of improved infrastructure. Adherence of project realization to the WPs plans will also be assessed.

T 8.2: Comparison with partnering institutions

• CNRS Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris (IBENS)
• Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden (MPI-CBG)
• Max Plant Institute for Plant Breeding, Cologne (MPIZ)
• University of Cambridge - Departments of Biochemistry and Parasitology (UCaBi & Pa)

Comparison with those institutes will also be important for assessing the quality of infrastructure and its impact on research performance. In the first project year, most team leaders and the Project Coordinator will visit one of the partner institutes. In addition to the discussion of scientific problems several hours will be devoted to the study of research infrastructure in the visited institution. Visitors will pay attention to the research management, staff building (wages dependence on performance) and exploitation of the research results.

T 8.3: Self-evaluation by all participants

Self-evaluation by all participants will be done continuously and problems will be presented at the team meetings. If they cannot be handled at the team level, they will be reported to MC and in serious cases also to SC. General problems will be discussed at general staff assembly that will be arranged in the middle of each reporting period to encourage free exchange of opinions, critical comments, and assessments of infrastructure improvements. Suggestions for collaborations across teams will be proposed. The discussion will also include strategic plans of BCAS development.

Progress

• Kick-off meeting took place in November 2012 in Prague according to the plan and some members participated at fist general staff Assembly. All valuable comments were taken into account and incorporated to the project realization.

• Selected team members / WP leaders visited partnering institutions and summarized their findings in written records for project management.

• First staff assembly was held on 28^th November 2013. Second staff assembly was held on June 14-15, 2015. In both cases, all the project teams introduced their work, equipment purchased, results gained with the help of built infrastructure and in frame of project mobility and discussed difficulties faced up during the project realization.