EXCELL is organised, governed and managed at two levels:
- The broader management and
- The day-to-day management.
The broader management is carried out by the Project Coordinator (CO) (the interface between the EXCELL consortium and the European Commission), the Executive Board (ExBo), the Scientific Board (SciBo), the Activity Platform Leaders (APL), and the Workpackage Leaders (WPL), as presented and outlined in the management scheme.
The day-to-day management includes management of (i) the contract, (ii) network resources (both human and financial), and (iii) supporting activities. The main responsible for these activities is the Administrative Project Manager (APM),a professional SME, P9/STL.
Contractual activities, such as submission of legal documents, Consortium Agreement, division of funding, etc. is carried out by the administrative department of the Coordinating Institute.
The Project has the following administrative bodies to assure the timely and accurate functioning of the project:
The Executive Board (ExBo), responsible for policy, decision-making and arbitration, is composed by the Coordinator and representatives appointed by each of the partners. ExBo represents the network management level where decisions are made and all activities are coordinated.
The Scientific Board (SciBo) is composed by the coordinator and the four activity platform leaders (biological, technical, electronics & IT, and integration). The SciBo analysis the progress of the project, prepares the Program of Activities (on a 6 months basis), based on suggestions coming from the WPLs, and develops the contingency plans if risks associated to the various research tasks will occur.
The Activity Platform Leaders (APL), are scientists elected at the kick-off meeting based on the role and importance of the research tasks planned for the coming 12 months. Four such platforms have been identified: biological, technical, electronics & IT, and integration. The APLs together with the CO will form the SciBo. The APLs will coordinate the research tasks with the WP leaders belonging to their activity platform.
The Workpackage Leaders (WPL) are responsible for the 9 WPs, in each case, the most experienced partner being the WP leader. The WPL is responsible for closely monitoring the deliverables of the individual WPs, the progress of the tasks, the encountered problems, and to report periodically on the status of the WPs to APL. WPLs will suggest any action at any moment of the project, which might improve efficiency and quality of research. They will also notify the APL about any scientific or other problems inside the WP, will suggest individual actions/contingency plans (e.g. re-grouping of resources, prioritising activities, re-allocating financial support), to solve such problems, whenever the results of the research might request this (bottom-up-approach).
The Administrative Project Manager (APM) is the main responsible for the implementation of the decisions taken by the ExBo (top-down implementation) and to support the consortium in its daily activity. Her work is the close follow up of the (i) contract, (ii) network resources (human and financial) and (iii) communication and dissemination.
The Coordinator, Prof. Jenny Emnéus, is the interface between the consortium and the Commission, and she is responsible not only for editing and submitting the regular reports and cost statements, but is also actively participating in the different governing bodies, thus having a clear insight into the progress of the project at any moment. The CO is assisted in her work by the APLs (scientific work) and APM (administration and management).
The assembly of an External Advisory Board (EAB) and an Ethical Board, has been discussed at project meetings, and after a careful analysis of the progress, the consortium considered to not to invite specialists into these advisory boards at this stage. This step will be considered again at the next project meeting.