Partners involved: UNISS, ACRA, CRAN, IRD, AUTH, UNB, INERA, UNIMAK, CSIR-SARI, KDC, KALRO, UoN, NM-AIST, TARI, HU, JU, ICRAF, ST-I, OCCAM, CIRAD

WP Leader: Giovanna Seddaiu

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Task 1.1: Project management (M1-M48)

Lead partner: UNISS; Participants: All partners

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Sub-Task 1.1.1: Management of activities

Sub-Task 1.1.2: Project meetings organization

Sub-Task 1.1.3: Financial and Administrative Management

Sub-Task 1.1.4: Regional coordination and management activities

Sub-Task 1.1.5: Scientific Advisory Board activities

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The task will focus on ensuring the day-to-day coordination of partners and the scientific and management work performed within the project and coherent implementation of the activities to meet project objectives. The coordination and overall management of the Consortium will be led by UNISS, through a Project Management Board (PMB), supported by the Steering Committee (SC). The SC is the decision-making, monitoring and strategic management body of the project. It consists of all WPs leaders and co-leaders and of the PMB members. The PMB will be responsible for ensuring the compliance of the Consortium Agreement; ensuring the administrative; circulating all appropriate information, monitoring activities; supporting partners in coordinating and carrying out WPs and Tasks paying attention that the implementation is coherent to the identified milestones, deliverables and deadlines; collecting periodical financial and technical reports, internal reports, as well as acting as intermediary between the consortium and the EC producing periodical reports to them. The PMB will be supported locally by two Regional boards (RB), one for each African region, to coordinate the activities to be implemented at regional level as well as to promote the exchange among partners. The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), set up during the KOM, will be composed by external experts not directly involved in the project with a very good depth and breadth of expertise. The main function of this body is to advise on technical and scientific issues and constraints, and provide guidance regarding future work.

 

Task 1.2: Project monitoring and evaluation (M5-M48)

Lead partner: UNISS; Participants: All partners

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Monitoring procedures and internal evaluation instruments will be developed in order to allow partners to fulfil the necessary requirements and to report the activities carried out to the management structure. Internal M&E will involve all partners through project meetings, email exchange, self-assessments, and collecting feedbacks from stakeholders. The Project Management Board will monitor issues related to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), following the resolutions approved by the Steering Committee and will check the quality of the financial reporting to the EU by all partners.

 

Task 1.3: Risk management (M1-M47)

Lead partner: UNISS; Participants: All partners

 

Despite this overall design, specific risks for project implementation need to be prevented, monitored and controlled and mitigation measures need to be implemented to ensure that the project meets its objectives. The Coordinator and the Steering Committee will set up the risk control mechanism for WP quality assessment, identification of upcoming bottlenecks, and risk management