ECHOES Project Handbook (D1.1)

European Cloud for Heritage Open Science D1.1 Project Handbook HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-ECCCH-01 Horizon Innovation action Author: Xavier RODIER (CNRS) © 2025 by the authors, the ECHOES consortium. This work is licensed under a “CC BY 4.0” license. Project start 1 June 2024 Project duration 60 months Document Identifier 10.5281/zenodo.17598752 ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 1 Deliverable Information Project Number 101157364 Acronym ECHOES Full title European Cloud for Heritage OpEn Science Project Url https://www.echoes-eccch.eu/ EU Project Officer Christian WILK Lead Partner CNRS Responsible author Xavier RODIER (CNRS) Authors Léna CZECH, Gamze KÖSE, Xavier RODIER, Mailane SAMPAIO (CNRS) Contributors Elodie CAZENAVE, Rémi PETITCOL (FSP) Change log Date Version Author Change 17/09/2024 V0.1 Gamze KÖSE, Mailane SAMPAIO, Léna CZECH Initial version 25/09/2024 V0.2 Mailane SAMPAIO, Xavier RODIER Revisions 27/09/2024 V0.3 Gamze KÖSE, Léna CZECH Additions 30/09/2024 V0.4 Gamze KÖSE, Xavier RODIER Revisions 0/09/2024 V0.5 Elodie CAZENAVE, Rémi PETITCOL Proofreading 01/10/2024 V0.6 Léna CZECH, Gamze KÖSE, Mailane SAMPAIO Revisions Deliverable D1.1 Title Project Handbook Work Package WP1 Title Project Management Submission date 01/10/2024 Pages 29 Keywords Handbook, Project Management ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 2 01/10/2024 V1.0 Léna CZECH Grammar and editing 01/10/2024 V1.0 Xavier RODIER Proofreading 03/04/2025 V2.0 Louise GADOIN Revisions ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 3 Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 4 Abstract The ECHOES Project Handbook brings together the core principles and practical guidelines that shape how the consortium works together. It sets out how the project is managed, how partners report progress, and how they communicate and disseminate. It also outlines how innovation is handled and how results are shared and protected. This handbook is designed to support smooth collaboration and ensure everyone is aligned throughout the project's duration. ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 5 Table of Contents List of figures and tables .................................................................................................. 7 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 8 Section 1 – Project management structure.................................................................... 9 1. Roles and responsibilities ............................................................................................. 9 2. Meetings....................................................................................................................... 15 3. Decision-making .......................................................................................................... 16 Section 2 – Project reporting .......................................................................................... 16 1. Internal reporting........................................................................................................ 16 2. Continuous reporting ................................................................................................. 17 a. Deliverables ................................................................................................................. 17 b. Milestones .................................................................................................................... 18 c. Other means of continuous reporting ...................................................................... 19 3. Periodic reporting ....................................................................................................... 20 a. The technical report .................................................................................................... 20 b. The financial report ..................................................................................................... 21 Section 3 – Working methods ......................................................................................... 22 1. Internal communication and tools ............................................................................ 22 a. Communication platform ................................................................................................ 22 b. Mailing lists .................................................................................................................. 23 c. Video conferences ....................................................................................................... 24 d. Face-to-face meetings ................................................................................................. 24 2. Document sharing and storage ................................................................................. 25 a. Sharepoint .................................................................................................................... 25 b. Zenodo repository ....................................................................................................... 25 3. External communication............................................................................................. 25 a. Project logo .................................................................................................................. 26 ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 6 b. Presentation template ................................................................................................ 26 c. Website and social media ........................................................................................... 27 Section 4 – Innovation management and Intellectual property ............................... 27 1. Ownership of results ................................................................................................... 27 2. Rights of use of the results ......................................................................................... 27 3. Transfer of results ....................................................................................................... 28 Section 5 – Data Protection ............................................................................................ 28 ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 7 List of figures and tables Figure 1: ECHOES Governance Table 1: Roles and responsibilities in the Consortium Table 2: ECHOES Management Board meetings schedule Table 3: Internal deliverable review procedure ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 8 Introduction The project handbook offers guidelines for ECHOES partners. It covers the most important aspects of the project, including the management structure, project reporting, working methods, innovation management, intellectual property and data protection. This handbook provides complementary, practical information for partners to implement the Grant Agreement (GA) and the Consortium Agreement (CA) regarding governance, project management, monitoring, approval of deliverables, communication and any other administrative issues. The Handbook is organised in the following sections: Section 1 - Project Management Structures Section 2 - Project Reporting Section 3 - Working methods Section 4 - Innovation Management and Intellectual Property Section 5 - Data protection ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 15 2. Meetings All bodies of the consortium meet regularly to discuss and assess the progress and share information and results. Any party should have one representative in a meeting and participate in a cooperative manner. For the General Assembly, the agenda must be sent 21 calendar days in advance for ordinary meetings, 10 calendar days in advance for an extraordinary meeting. For the Steering Committee, it is 7 calendar days in advance for ordinary and extraordinary meetings. The agenda, the minutes and the attendance list must be provided by the Chair of the meeting. Board Ordinary meetings Extraordinary meetings Executive board Once a month, the first Friday of the month. NES Steering Committee Quarterly Upon request of any member of the SC Notice: 7 calendar days before. General Assembly Once a year Upon request of the SC or 1/3 of the GA Notice: 15 calendar days before. ECHOES Integration Task Force Quarterly NES Scientific Committee Once a year, remote or in person, usually during an ECHOES Annual event Upon request of the SC or 1/3 of the GA Notice: 15 calendar days before. Policy Advisory Board Once a year, remote or in person, usually during an ECHOES Annual event Upon request of the SC or 1/3 of the GA Notice: 15 calendar days before. Technical Assesment Committee Once a year, remote or in person To be decided at its first meeting Stakeholders Council Once a year, remote or in person Once a year, remote or in person Table 2. ECHOES Management Board meetings schedule ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 16 3. Decision-making The Parties agree to respect all decisions of the General Assembly. Each Party has one vote. A decision may also be taken without a meeting. More details about this procedure are available on the Grant Agreement on the section 6.3.1.3 for the General Assembly and the section 6.3.2.4 for the Steering Committee. Section 2 – Project reporting Within the project, three forms of reporting have to be distinguished: internal reporting, continuous reporting, and periodic reporting. 1. Internal reporting Within the project, a system of internal reporting has been implemented in order for the Coordinator, the Steering Committee and the Executive Board to keep track of the activities of each partner and each Work Package. Once every quarter (three months), the beneficiaries must fill in a report outlining the activities their teams carried out for each WP. They must describe the actions undertaken in the relevant WPs, the person/month devoted to the project during the quarter, and, if applicable, the trips and mobilities that their work for ECHOES entailed. A similar report is required of each WP leader at the same frequency, and must recount the actions that were planned for the time period in the Grant Agreement, and the actions that were actually implemented. If there are any differences between the two, the WP leader must explain the reasons (difficulties encountered, miscalculated time, etc.). A template is provided to each beneficiary and each WP leader for this exercise, and the reports must be uploaded onto MS Teams or sent to the coordination team. The following folder is dedicated to the progress reports. The templates and all progress reports will be uploaded in the files corresponding to the appropriate reporting periods: Internal progress reports. These documents, also called ‘progress reports’, are purely internal to the project, and are not meant to be uploaded onto the Funding and Tenders platform. Instead, they are an efficient method of record-keeping, and a way for the Coordinator and their team to have a regular overview of the work that has been done, and to be informed if there are any delays or issues with certain tasks or Work Packages. ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 17 2. Continuous reporting The term ‘continuous reporting’ in the context of this project refers to the account of the beneficiaries’ advancement given to the European Commission by means of the deliverables, milestones, etc. It is, in reality, the proof that we, as partners, are making progress in the development and implementation of our activities. The calendar of the continuous reporting was agreed upon by the granting authority (the European Research Executive Agency – REA) and the ECHOES partners, as beneficiaries of the grant, must keep up with it. a. Deliverables Deliverables are defined as “Outputs to be submitted to the EU (publication, leaflet, progress report, brochure, list, etc.)” on the European Commission’s Funding and Tenders platform. A timeline of project deliverables can be found in the Grant Agreement on pages 45-50, Annex 1, Part A. The table is followed by a more detailed description of the content of each deliverable (p.51-66). As a matter of fact, for any given deliverable, the Grant Agreement provides the following information: 1: The number of the deliverable, composed of the number of the Work Package it relates to, and a number corresponding to its position in the list of deliverables due for this WP, 2: The name/title of the deliverable, 3: The WP it is linked to, and whose responsibility it is to produce the deliverable, 4: The Lead Beneficiary, meaning the partner who must oversee the preparation of the deliverable, 5: The type of document – most often a deliverable is a written report, but it may take other forms, such as a Data Management Plan (D1.2) or a prototype (D8.2 for example), 6: The Dissemination level, which indicates the level of confidentiality (Public, Sensitive or EU Classified) of the deliverable and thus may limit how or to whom the deliverable can be shared, 7: The due date, corresponding to a given month in the project, meaning the deliverable must be uploaded on the online platform by the last day of this month (for example, month 4 of the project is September 2024, so the deliverable is due for 30 Sept. 2024). 8: And finally, a short description of the deliverable to guide the partners in its production. ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 18 In addition to the information given in the Grant Agreement, an internal deliverable review procedure have been devised by the partners in order to manage their production as effectively as possible: Date Task to be carried out One month before the deadline The Coordinator sends an email reminding the work package leader of the deadline of the deliverable. Two weeks before the deadline The WP leader sends the latest version of the deliverable to the Coordinator One week before the deadline The Coordinator provides the WP leader with a critical review and suggests changes to the content and form of the deliverable by adding comments to the shared document. Three days before the deadline The WP leader finalises the deliverable. One to two days before the deadline After final validation from the Coordinator and WP leader, the Coordinator submits the deliverable to the online platform. Table 3. Internal deliverable review procedure If ever the partners realise that they are late in the production of a deliverable, and that it will most likely not be uploaded on the platform on time, it is crucial they inform the Coordinator, who is in charge of advising the Project Officer of the delay. b. Milestones Milestones are defined by the European Commission’s Funding and Tenders platform as “Control points in the project that help to chart progress (kick-off meetings, steering committees, first-draft of a survey, prototype, etc.) They may correspond to the completion of a key deliverable, which allows the next phase of the work to begin or is needed at intermediary points.” A table of the project’s milestones can be found in the Grant agreement on pages 67-69, Annex 1, Part A. Similarly, to the deliverables list, the milestones list provides the following information: 1: The number of the milestone, in order of the due dates, 2: The name of the milestone, 3: The WP(s) it relates to, 4: The Lead beneficiary, meaning the partner responsible for ensuring that the milestone is achieved, ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 19 5: The means of verification of the achievement of the milestone, meaning the tangible evidence of the achievement of the milestone to provide as proof of advancement, 6: The due date, corresponding to a month of the project and meaning that the milestone should be achieved by the last day of the given month. c. Other means of continuous reporting Although deliverables and milestones are the most tangible kind of evidence for the advancement of the project, the reporting to the European Commission can take other forms: • An account of the mitigation measures and responses provided to the critical risks encountered during the implementation of the project can be provided on the online platform. • Updating the project summary on the platform is also an appropriate way to show progress: as it is made for publication, providing more detail and better defining the objectives and activities of the partners in the summary demonstrates the progress made on the project. • A list of dissemination and communication activities can also be uploaded to the online platform to show how the partners on the project are reaching out to the relevant communities. The ECHOES Teams will allow the partners to keep track of such advancements, and the Coordination team will update the platform regularly. Any information relevant to the continuous reporting can be uploaded in the ‘Continuous reporting’ file: Continuous reporting. Updating the platform regularly will ease the periodic reporting process. ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 20 3. Periodic reporting In addition to uploading the deliverables, milestones and other advancements on the platform once they are completed, the project partners must also periodically craft a general report their progress. The following table, outlining the reporting periods, can be found in the Data Sheet of the Grant Agreement: As indicated by the table above, after the initial prefinancing, there are three reporting periods: • The first, running from the start of the project to the two-year mark, • The second, from the beginning of the third year to the end of the fourth, • And the third, spanning over the fifth and final year of the project. After the end of a reporting period, the beneficiaries have sixty days to upload all the information required in the periodic report to the Funding and Tenders platform. A periodic report is composed of two parts: a technical report, and a financial report. a. The technical report The technical report contains, first, an account of the continual reporting carried out by the partners (Part A). It gathers information about all the activities of the period: the deliverables handed in, the milestones achieved, the critical risks encountered and the methods used to mitigate them, as well as the events, the communication and dissemination activities, the Key Points of Interest (KPIs), and any other type of result obtained or impact observed during the period. ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 21 Most of the tabs shown above are completed by the continual reporting – especially if the partners have regularly updated their progress – but it is important that, at the end of the reporting period, each partner makes sure that all relevant information has been communicated so the final report is complete. Of this information is derived the status of the Work Packages, meaning their level of advancement. It is important to note that the progress of a WP is based on the activities carried out, and not on the results obtained: a WP can be considered as completed even though the objectives have not been reached if activities – whether they were planned in the proposal or not – have been implemented to reach them. If a WP is not completed by the announced deadline, it can be completed in a subsequent reporting period. Moreover, at the time of the final reporting period, if a Work Package is not fully completed, a percentage of completion is nevertheless indicated, and will correspond to the payment made in consequence. The technical report also contains a narrative part (Part B), which gives a more detailed explanation of the work carried out. It takes the form of a PDF document that follows the template of the platform, to be uploaded only for the purpose of the periodic report. When the end of a reporting period is upcoming, the Coordination team will send a reminder email to all partners and invite them to meet with the leaders of the WPs they are involved in to take stock of the work done over the period. Once the activities have been reported and the narrative part has been crafted, the Coordinator will collect this information and upload it onto the platform. b. The financial report This part of the periodic report indicates how the sums previously received have been used. A financial statement is generated by the platform for the Coordinator, and contains the financial information for all the beneficiaries. It takes the following form: It is derived from the status of the Work Packages, thus, if it needs to be corrected, it is necessary that the status of WPs is modified first. Once the financial statement is correct, the Coordinator signs it off, guaranteeing that the information it contains is exact. ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 22 Section 3 – Working methods It is essential to develop working methods that facilitate communication and file sharing between all the partners involved, particularly in view of the large consortium involved in the ECHOES project. The communication tools and working methods introduced in the following sections altogether will contribute to a working environment in which project members can collaborate and work in a most efficient way. 1. Internal communication and tools Communication within the project will happen through different channels of work packages. Whilst face-to-face meetings will be held on a regular basis, yet with a rather low frequency, ECHOES members, including advisory bodies and WP teams, will communicate on a daily basis in Microsoft Teams. All internal communication will therefore be carried out primarily through this tool, as well as by email for the organisation of important events or urgent reminders about deliverables, for example. In order to facilitate communication between the various partners in the consortium, a contact masterlist with everyone's email address has been created and uploaded to the TEAMS group: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3AbIbWg3vxa1vtxEKDghp8YwIdGd4tz8w1MGuYjrsFAmg1%4 0thread.tacv2/conversations?groupId=4127ba4d-09e3-40ad-856b27257610b49f&tenantId=16150599-ebb0-4fcf-94a5-6010823c7bd5 a. Communication platform The project management software Microsoft Teams used in the ECHOES project brings together multiple hubs of communication. It is a workspace for real-time collaboration and communication, meetings, file and app sharing (see below). Microsoft Teams will allow all project team members to communicate and collaborate on all ECHOES tasks via channels. Recognised as an effective collaboration tool for project management, the Teams platform enables partners to have private conversations and create groups with many participants, via real-time messaging, start, follow or contribute to discussions on the discussion platform, share documents and link documents saved in Documents. As well as the overall project environment, there are also team environments for each work package. All project members have access to all teams and documents, unless specifically restricted. New project members should contact the ECHOES project manager to obtain an invitation to join the ECHOES group on Teams. The guidelines below relate to the ECHOES customized set-up in Microsoft Teams: ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 23 1. Channels have been created for each WP and other relevant categories in the General channel, such as Event, Official documents, etc. Each project team member should be added the team(s) on which they will be working and will automatically be added to the teams relevant to the entire consortium. 2. Each channel contains the ‘Posts’ and ‘Files’ tabs. • 'Posts’ should be used for communication related to the channel’s topic. • ‘Files’ gives access to the SharePoint folder (and sub-folders) connected to the individual channel. 3. Each Work Package channel has three separate folders: • Deliverables • Reporting • Meetings Work Package Leaders are responsible for the good communication within their WP, specifically with Task Leaders and the Coordination Team. They are also responsible for communicating with the Coordinator as needed, including regular update meetings and reporting. In fact, for each meeting held as part of the project, the attendance lists are signed, dated and then archived. This is also the case for the minutes, which are crucial for keeping track of the issues at stake in the project and the solutions proposed for advancing its implementation. As regards events, the minutes are published in the ‘minutes’ folder in the ‘General’ tab of the Teams group. For WP meetings, the minutes are published in each work package channel in the “Meetings” folder. Minutes can also be transcribed directly using the ‘Automatic Transcription’ tool available on Teams. For each meeting, the moderator can select the ‘Automatic Transcription’ option by entering the main language of the meeting. The meeting is then transcribed live in the form of notes. Once the meeting is finished, the notes are available in the meeting group as a document. b. Mailing lists In order to further enable communication between the members of the ECHOES project, several email lists have been created: • One general email list for all ECHOES project partners, • One email list for the Steering Committee, • One email list for each Board, • One email list for each Work Package. The email lists are created using Sympa in Renater (groupes.renater.fr), which makes it easy to manage members and keeps an archive of all emails sent. Sympa (groupes.renater.fr) is a mailing list server that provides access to a mailing list environment. From this page it is possible to choose subscription options, unsubscribe, access archives or manage ECHOES Project 101157364 - D1.1 Project Handbook 24 lists. With this context, it is recommended to use free or institutional tools. The Coordination team will use Sympa in Renater and its internal tools: File Sender for sharing and storage files or Evento that is useful to organize a meeting. These email lists allow messages to be sent to all partners subscribed. This facilitates information sharing and ensures smooth communication between the coordinator and the project partners. Furthermore, communication by email is a key asset at a time when notifications on Teams are multiplying. Members can get lost in the mass of notifications, so this mailing list initiative will be a good alternative to avoid losing essential project information. c. Video conferences WP meetings and Task meetings will be held via Teams. In general, virtual working meetings should be scheduled at least one week in advance, have a set agenda and produce minutes which will allow tracking of actions items. The minutes should be stored in Microsoft Teams in the folder linked to the correct channel, and partners should be informed of where to find them. Ad hoc virtual meetings should be organized regularly at WP and task levels to: • Define and refine action plans, discuss progress and assign responsibilities; • Share ideas, address areas of concern and clarify any questions / doubts. • Some ‘good practices’ for virtual working meetings include: • Sending a meeting invitation with an agenda (or survey in advance to determine the best time), • Listing any preparatory activities to be undertaken by each participant, • Nominating the moderator. After the meeting, the moderator should post a link in the appropriate Microsoft Teams channel to enable the participants to evaluate the content of the minutes. Once validated, the meeting minutes are considered final. d. Face-to-face meetings Plenary meetings of the entire project will take place five times throughout the project’s lifetime: at the beginning (kick-off meeting), the annual event (each year during the 5-year period) and the final meeting. Smaller face-to-face meetings will be arranged, taking advantage of major events that several partners may attend. Additional face-to-face meetings will be undertaken on a work package or cross-work package basis, or for other purposes as needed. General meetings are communicated about at least three months in advance and are co-organised by the coordinator and a host institution.