Activity 5 Project management

Objective

The aim was to provide comprehensive project management for the monitoring and management of technical progress, resources and quality, including the dissemination of the project results.

The Maritime Single Window Master Plan project is complex not least considering the large number of countries involved. The project required for effective management both on the individual country level, in order to effectively coordinate and manage the activities between the various authorities, on the project-wide level in order to coordinate and manage the activities between the participating countries and their national stakeholders, and on the consultation level with the European Commission.

The NL Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, Rijkswaterstaat coordinated the ANNA consortium. The focus was on the project as a whole in the relations between the participating countries and towards the European Commission. Also connection with relevant other projects was taken into consideration. The tasks are vided between Sub-Activities 5.1 and 5.2 and the tasks relate to:

• Management of the project (coordination);
• Administrative issues;
•  Financial issues;
• Dissemination.

Each participating country will coordinate their own (national) aspects through a “national contact” under Sub-Activity 5.3. The national contact is familiar with the national status of the maritime policy and operations. The responsible organisation acts as the Single Point of contact for the management team and needs to be the intermediary between the consortium and the national maritime related stakeholders and organisations.

Activity 5 comprised 3 sub-activities:

• SuAc5.1: Project Management
• SuAc5.2: Dissemination
• SuAc5.3: National Coordination and Project Management

Tasks being executed:

Following is a brief outline of the sub-activities being conducted to achieve the objectives stated above:

SuAc5.1 Project management

This activity covers the management and organisation activities of the Action that is required throughout its duration. Adequate coordination, control procedures, quality and risk management and monitoring mechanisms have been provided.

The work comprised amongst others:

• Project coordination;
• Project management and control of timetable and expenses making use of the organisational structure;
• Control technical progress and results of the project versus spent resources and time schedule compared to the work plan and set corrective actions if required;
• Elaborate the project status report(s) according to the requirements of the EC;
• Elaborate a final report of the project;
• Consultations with the European Commission and the TEN-T Executive Agency (especially mid-term review, regular status meetings);
• Establish Brussels Project Office (Rue de la Loi 223, 1040 Brussels) to allow intensive exchange between all parties concerned and engage effectively with EC policy development and other relevant EU projects, also hosting events;
• Participation in European Meetings (i.e. on invitation by the EC and other relevant EU projects) in order to ensure that the project is in line with the European developments and conforms to the requirements.

The project management work has been shared with all participating countries. Several groups are established to safeguard the quality of the outcome of the work. An effective and tailored project management organisation structure was developed making use of ICT tools like social media.

The bodies making up the organisational structure of the Action were: the Coordinator, the Consortium Meeting, the Project Board, the Activity Leaders, the Peer Review Group and the Project Office.

The results of this activity include dthe development of a Project Management Plan, the Action Status Reports, Financial Statements and will also deliver the Final Report for the Action.

SuAc5.2 Dissemination

To disseminate the project results to the national and international stakeholders.

The work comprised of:

• Meetings with relevant commercial and governmental stakeholders. During the meetings, the status of the project as well as related national and international activities in the field of (Maritime) Single Windows and electronic data reporting were communicated
• Presentation at conferences: In order to disseminate the results of the project to a broader international scientific community, presentations at conferences took place;
• Project website: A project website has been set up (www.annamsw.eu). This website provided details on the objectives of the project, the project partners, news on interim results and upcoming events and has a secure area for the distribution of project reports and additional information. Additional features like comics and short movies were developed during the project;
• Dissemination material: The dissemination of project results in written (leaflet, folder) and electronic format (multimedia, internet, email) was executed;
• Dissemination and exploitation of project results towards political stakeholders;
• Dissemination and exploitation of project results within the participating countries;
• Liaison with relevant projects on a National, European and International level inside the scope of the project to strive for a mutual understanding on the issues, which are study subjects of the Maritime Single Window Master Plan project.

In addition to national dissemination activities two major events were organised on a Consortium-wide level:

• November 2013 – maritime SIngle Window Day - Event focussing on the national pilot project developments;
• December 2015 – Final Event focussed on the Master Plan “Extended Collaboration”, pilot project results and priorities for further development.

These two events have been organised in close co-operation with other relevant EU projects, in order to obtain maximum synergies. Also clustering events of the MoS programme have been actively participated in.

SuAc5.3 National Coordination and Project Management

In addition to the project management activities towards the consortium as a whole it is necessary for each EU Member State to conduct coordination of their own activities and towards their national authorities and organisations. To this end a separate sub-activity was defined in which the participating EU Member States could organise this national coordination as well as conduct the project management activities falling under their responsibility according national needs.

Tasks in this sub-activity included:

• Coordination of national authorities and organisations involved in the specification and eventual implementation of the Maritime Single Window per participating EU Member State;
• Project and financial management including the conduct of audits where required.

Consortium Meeting

The Consortium Meeting will be the supervising body of the Action. All participating EU Member States are members and have a voting right. Observer countries can participate in the meeting.

All participating Member States

Project Coordinator & Management

The project management is led by the Coordinator and supported by the project manager and his team.

The Coordinator, the NL Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment/Rijkswaterstaat, is the single point of contact between the European Commission and the Consortium and responsible for the daily operations. The Coordinator will prepare all work for the Consortium Meeting and the Project Board, will be in direct contact with all participating countries, and will organise the work in the ANNA Project Office. The coordination work will be actively supported by the NL Ministry of Finance/Customs division.

The Coordinator is responsible for reporting to the Commission (finances, payments, progress), monitoring the compliance of the beneficiaries with their obligations under the EC Decision and reporting to the Steering Committee.

The project manager is responsible for the monitoring of technical and administrative progress, identifying risks and compiling mitigating measures. The project manager will monitor the progress of the Tasks according the time planning, achievement of milestones and submission of deliverables. The project manager is responsible for appropriate internal communication between activities ensuring the exchange of relevant information between the activities and reporting on potential bottlenecks.

Coordinator:

The Netherlands (MinIandM) / Rijkswaterstaat

Project Manager:

The Netherlands (MinIenE) / Rijkswaterstaat

Project Board

The Project Board shall be responsible for the overall direction of the Project and will validate the technical execution of the project internally prior to referral to the Peer Review Group, ensuring that the work executed by each partner proceeds at all levels.

The Project Board will:

•  Assist the project coordinator in periodically reporting to the Consortium Meeting, e.g. the Action Status Reports, Financial Statements and delivery of the Final Report for the Action.
• Validate the progress and results of the ANNA activity, including the development of a Project management plan, the Strategic Action Plan, the Action Status Reports, Financial Statements and delivery of the Final Report for the Action.

The Project Board will meet 4 times a year. The membership also covers the Activity and Task Leaders

Netherlands, Sweden, France, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Greece. Norway (as Observer)

Peer Review Group

The Peer Review Group will monitor and validate the Activities carried out in the Action.

External experts have been invited to participate in the Peer Review Group to safeguard the integrity of the work and its compatibility with the work achieved in various relevant fora. At least two peer review reports will be delivered; the first to review the functional and technical requirements for implementation set, the definition of all Pilots set, the interim Master Plan 2015 while the second will review the implementation of the recommendations of the first report as well the Extended Collaboration strategy paper and the pilot global features report.

Dissemination Team

The dissemination team is responsible for the organisation of workshops with governmental and non- governmental stakeholders and presentation of the action in conferences and public events.

The dissemination team (sub-activity 5.2) will have direct links with all sub-activities in order to ensure the appropriate communications.

The Netherlands (MinIenE) / Rijkswaterstaat and Activity Leaders

Project Office

The Project Office will provide all necessary day-to-day back-up support to the Project Coordinator and management team in organising meetings, updating the website and informing all partners with respect to administrative and financial formality requirements.

The Netherlands (MinIenM) / Rijkswaterstaat

Activity Leaders

Each Activity leader is responsible for coordinating the execution of the works of the related Tasks. They will:

•  Coordinate the tasks to be executed among the participants;
• Monitor the progress of the assigned Task;
• Report the status and next steps to the Project Management Team and the Coordinator;
• Participate in Activity Leaders and Project Board Meetings;
• Organise relevant meetings (create agenda, meeting minutes, etc.)

Furthermore, depending on the nature of the Task, the Task leader has additional duties:

• Elaborate and /or coordinate the elaboration of documents (concepts, reports, test plans, etc.) if applicable
• Coordinate the implementation and testing of relevant systems and services if applicable.

The Activity leaders are participants of the Project Board.

Authorized Representatives (National Contact Points)

In order to facilitate communication between the AnNa partners and the Coordination activities, both for project management and (sub-)activities (such as pilots), each Beneficiary has nominated one Authorized Representative (or national contact point).

No.

Beneficiary

National Contact Point

1

Kingdom of the Netherlands

Ronald van den Heuvel

2

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Tom Pullin

3

Kingdom of Belgium

Yves Maekelberg/Gilbert Bentein

4

Republic of Bulgaria

Zlatko Kuzmanov

5

Kingdom of Sweden

Jorgen Sjöholm

6

Puertos del Estado (Spain Ministry of Public Works and Transport)

Jaime Luezas Alvarado

7

Hellenic Republic

Ilias Sofikitis

8

Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes, I.P.  (IMT)

Heloisa Cid

9

Republic of Latvia

Deniss Bickovs

10

French Republic

Clara Benz

11

Italian Republic

Mario Dogliani

12

Ministry of Infrastructure and Spatial Planning, Slovenian Maritime Administration

Miran Bordon

13

Romanian Naval Authority

Razvan Trandafir

14

Cyprus Ports Authority

Yiannos Lakkotrypis