Low hanging fruit, quick success, Move forward from there
Since FP6 in 2003, project management is rewarded at full cost by the EC Project managers since then slowly started to train themselves some scientists still used PhD’s and postdocs, so things went slow Now we’re getting used to it, there is a group of people out there, calling themselves project managers
Organized ourselves in a loose platform Others like big R&D heavy companies (Philips) and applied research institutes Nothing formal, but immediately very popular, many ‘members’ and many attendants to meetings Very lively e-mail lists, everyday issues, solutions come quickly.
During the meetings we defined a few front-line issues to be discussed and worked out in more detail. Training was one of them, also following initiatives in EARMA. We aimed at immediate results, just do an inventory, get things going, exchange best practise, discuss experiences We defined in the end 4 major categories, we may end up with more, or less, or others, but this works for the moment
How to, for instance about doing an amendment to the contract, or the negotiation phase Data policy, something new, will come in future calls, maybe FP7 but certainly FP8.
- This is how to improve your own capabilities
Anyone here in the room has experienced differences in countries, people etc. Dressing up in Sweden is different than in Spain an e-mail to/from a British person is different than an e-mail to/from a Dutch person
- This can go from general policies to project specific issues
We presented suppliers of trainings/courses on each issue and discussed the good and bad points of these suppliers Very lively discussion, people could actually give their direct input from experience
We presented the options, discussed best practices and less good experiences Compiled that information in a spreadsheet for the Eupman members
It would be good if this would be done in other countries as well, there are other initiatives in Europe (Denmark, UK) Maybe set up a working group that will meet in a special session to discuss outcomes, merge the inquiries present things on the EARMA website, making it a real asset to go there for factual information And then some future dreams to work on, but not too fast!