WP1 Project Management and Coordination

The James Hutton Institute (JHI) will:

• Set agenda and provide supporting materials for all consortium meetings
• Facilitate financial transactions between the EC, project coordinator and consortium members.
• Create and up-date a risk register for PLAID, review and up-date it at consortium meetings, design mitigation measures
• Manage unforeseen circumstances that have the potential to impact on project implementation

The James Hutton Institute (JHI) will lead this Task. PLAID will volunteer for the pilot action on Open Access to Research Data. JHI will develop a data management plan which includes the following elements:

• types of data the project will generate/ collect
• standards used in data collection
• data storage
• maintenance of data confidentiality
• access to data for exploitation
• shared use of data
• verification and re-use of data
• how the data will be curated and preserved

The James Hutton Institute will develop and maintain a dedicated project web-site. This will be up-dated at regular intervals throughout the project. It will contain:

• descriptions of planned project activities, participants and outputs
• the PLAID twitter feed, and blog, links to the PLAID facebook page and You-Tube channel
• an open registration survey for populating and up-dating the inventory of demonstration activities (WP3)
• links to the inventory database and interactive map (WP3)
• profiles on the virtual demonstration farms (including videos) (WP4) and case studies in WP5
• all print outputs (e.g. fact-sheets) and the decision-support tools developed in WP6
• links to partner organisations, IAB home pages, EUFRAS and other related sites

James Hutton Institute (JHI) will prepare midterm and final reports for the EC, including audit certificates where required. These reports will be circulated to the consortium for validation; emerging questions will be resolved at consortium meetings, and will then be sent to the EC.  JHI will present the purpose and outputs of the PLAID project at relevant workshops, seminars and conferences, and discuss the project objectives and results with interested parties, such as policy officers, NGOs, farming organisations, the SCAR-AKIS working group and researchers.

The James Hutton Institute (JHI) will establish a Project Board consisting of the leaders of the 13 consortium members' teams and a Project Steering Group consisting of the 7 WP leads. The Project Board will meet at every consortium meeting to review the Risk Register, and address strategic issues. The Project Steering Group will meet virtually between consortium meetings to ensure that WPs deliver tasks to a high standard, and achieve milestones in a timely manner.  JHI will support WP leaders in the planning and implementation of individual WPs, facilitate communication between project participants through regular email up-dates on PLAID progress.  JHI will produce minutes from all consortium meetings.

The James Hutton Institute (JHI) will ensure the effective collaboration with AgriDemoF2F through regular interactions with the AgriDemoF2F leadership. JHI will be responsible for ensuring the organisation of joint first and second consortium meetings for the two consortia, a joint policy workshop to develop joint recommendations in M27/28 and a joint final conference.The first consortium meeting will be held in Belgium and hosted by ILVO, the second will be held in the UK and hosted by JHI.