Management & Organisation
We have based our management and administrative structure on tested schemes adopted by existing Networks of Excellence and have consulted project officers and project administrators on the outline of our programme. Our aim is not to impose rigid centralised coordination but, insofar as is compatible with achieving a shared programme, devolve responsibility for the management of particular activities to individual nodes and sets of nodes.
We will establish an Executive Board which will be responsible for strategic direction of RENOIR including: the acceptance of new nodes and the allocation of funds to network activities. The Executive Board will delegate responsibility for the major activity areas to committees convened for this purpose. They are: Research Coordination Committee; Research Training Committee; Infrastructure Committee; Industry & Technology Transfer Committee. Decision making power within each of the activity areas will be assigned to the appropriate committee working within the budgetary framework set by the Executive Board. In the event of a dispute the majority decision of the Executive Board of RENOIR will be regarded as binding. Membership of committees will be determined by the Executive Board based on the expertise and interests of the network nodes. No decision has yet been reached on the exact constitution of these committees. Each committee will have a Chair responsible for convening the meetings of the relevant committee, reporting its work to the Executive Board and ensuring that appropriate actions are undertaken in their activity area.
Nodes have been divided into local circles, linked to EU states, each with a coordinator and a set of associate nodes. For simplicity these local circles have been organised into four coordination groups with an additional group for external nodes. They are: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden; Belgium & Luxembourg, Netherlands, France; Austria & Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, UK; Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal. Local circles are principally responsible for management and activities best organised on a local basis, such as short courses and other means of dissemination.
As appropriate for individual activities task groups will be established by the relevant committees bringing together nodes with interests in that activity. A task group will have set terms of reference and will report to the committee which established it. All nodes will belong to one or more research area circles which are the primary means of research coordination. Each research area described in our categorisation of technical goals is covered by such a circle which brings together groups with active research interests in that area and the issues within it.
The administration of RENOIR will be the responsibility of the Coordinating Contractor, responsible for all contractual dealings with the European Commission. The Coordinating Contractor will nominate a Network Director, who will chair the Executive Board. The Network Director is responsible for ensuring that the decisions of the Executive Board are carried out. Actual day-to-day administrative matters will be the responsibility of an Administrative Coordinator, on the staff of the Coordinating Contractor, assisted by administrative and secretarial staff at each site. The Administrative Coordinator is responsible for: maintaining contact with the European Commission in respect of administrative and financial matters; managing the overall budget; ensuring that contractual responsibilities to the European Commission are met; and for ensuring that each node provides such technical, financial and administrative information as the European Commission may require. The Administrative Coordinator acts as Secretary to the Executive Board. In addition RENOIR will appoint an Activities Coordinator who will be responsible for coordination and management arising from RENOIR activities and, in particular, for the management of the communication infrastructure.
The Executive Board will consist of: the Network Director; the coordinator of each of the groups; an ex officio representative of the European Commission; the coordinator of the group of external nodes invited as an observer; and the Chairs of each activity area committee (12 people in total including the secretary).
The coordinating contractor of RENOIR will be City University, their nominee for Network Director is Anthony Finkelstein. The committee chairs are as follows: Research Coordination Committee - Kevin Ryan (University of Limerick); Research Training Committee - Michael Goedicke (Universitat Essen); Infrastructure Committee - Barbara Pernici (Politechnico di Milano); Industry & Technology Transfer Committee - Mike Hill (Defence Research Agency). For clarification these chairs are elected as individuals rather than as representatives of nodes.
Figure 1 summarises the RENOIR management and organisation structure.
Figure 1: RENOIR Management and Organisation Structure
Subject to Executive Board approval, and the criteria below, membership is open to any research laboratory or industrial group of researchers in Europe with interests in the area of requirements engineering, that subscribes to the aims of RENOIR and is interested in participating in the activities of the network. The procedure and criteria for extending membership are as below.
Applications for membership consisting of a profile that covers research and technology development activities, research training, curriculum vitae of principal researchers and notable publications or other products should be sent to the Coordinating Contractor. Such applications will be copied to the appropriate local coordinator who will provide a supporting statement for the application. Based on this documentation the Executive Board will decide whether to accept the application. To maintain the cohesion and effectiveness of RENOIR all nodes, once accepted are obliged to work actively towards the goals of the network. In particular nodes are expected to: participate at an appropriate level in all plenary meetings of the network; and, ensure appropriate responses to requests for assistance and information from the committees coordinating the activity areas. The activities of nodes will be reported to the European Commission in an Annual Progress Report, which if appropriate, will form the basis for consideration of the membership of any inactive nodes in RENOIR.
Applications from organisations and research centres wishing to join the RENOIR network must be received by the Network Co-ordinator at least FOUR weeks before the Executive Board meeting at which the membership application is to be considered.
Back to
title
Next section
Previous section
Contents page