© HATII, University of Glasgow Thoughts on International Collaborations Prof Seamus Ross, Director HATII University of Glasgow © HATII UofGlasgow, 2005

© HATII, University of Glasgow

Thoughts on International Collaborations

Prof Seamus Ross,

Director HATII University of Glasgow

© H

AT

II UofG

lasgow, 2005

Library at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli


Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII)

---Current Collaborative Projects---● Digital Curation Centre (DCC)

http://www.dcc.ac.uk● PLANETS

http://www.planets-project.eu/● CASPAR

http://www.casparpreserves.eu/● DPE

http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu● SHAMAN

http://shaman-ip.eu/node/44

DL.org[starts 1 December 08]

● 3D-COFORM[Starts 1 December 08]

© H

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II UofG

lasgow, 2001

George Service House, Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII)


Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII)

---Example Completed Colllaborative Projects--● DELOS (Digital Preservation Cluster)

http://www.delos.infohttp://www.dpc.delos.info

● AHDS Performing Artshttp://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/index.htm

● ERPANEThttp://www.erpanet.org

● DigiCULThttp://www.digicult.info

© H

AT

II UofG

lasgow, 2001

George Service House, Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII)


HATII Collaborations-Domains/Countries

• Libraries• Archives• Museums• Research

Institutes• Universities• Government

Ministries

• Australia• Austria• Belgium• Bulgaria• Canada• China• Czech Republic• Denmark• Estonia• Finland• France

• Germany• Greece• Hungary• Italy• Lithuania• Luxembourg• Netherlands• New Zealand• Portugal• Spain• United States


Collaborations with over 100 institutions across 20 countries -- more than 50 of which involve partners

engaged in jointly funded projects

• Advanced Computer Systems ACS S.p.A. (IT)• Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg (DE)• ARC Seibersdorf research GmbH (AT)• Asemantics S. r. l. (IT)• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (IT)• Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research

Councils (UK)• Det Kongelige Bibliotek (NL)• Engineering – Ingegneria Informatica (IT)• European Space Agency, ESRIN (IT)• FernUniversität Hagen (DE)• Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale (IT)• Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (GR)• IBM Haifa Research Laboratory (IS)• IBM Nederland N.V.(NL)• Informatics University of Edinburgh (UK)• Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (FR)• International Centre for Art and New Technology in

Prague (CZ)• Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie dell’Informazione –

CNR (IT)• Koninklijke Bibliotheek (NL)• l'Institut de Recherche et Coordination

Acoustique/Musique (FR)• Metaware (IT)

• Microsoft Research Ltd (UK)• Ministero Per I Beni E Le Attività Culturali (IT)• Národní knihovna Ceske republiky (CZ)• Nationaal Archief (NL)• National and Capodistrian University of Athens (GR)• Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek (AT)• Phonogrammarchiv der Österreichischen Akademie der

Wissenschaften (AT)• Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv (CH)• Statsbiblioteket (DK)• Technical University of Crete (GR)• Technische Universitaet Wien (AT)• Tessella Support Services plc (UK)• The British Library (UK)• The National Archives of England. Wales and the United

Kingdom (UK)• UKOLN, University of Bath (UK)• UNESCO (FR)• Università degli Studi di Firenze (IT)• Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” (IT)• Universita' degli studi di Urbino, Istbal (IT)• Universität Duisburg-Essen (DE)• Universitat zu Koln (DE)• University of Göttingen (DE)• University of Leeds (UK)• Vilnius University Faculty of Communication (LT)


● Collaboration is HARD● Collaboration is FUN● Collaboration exposes partners to intellectual variation

that is stimulating● Collaboration means different things to different

people● Collaboration depends upon managed communication● Collaboration depends upon effective project

management● Collaboration requires that you ‘Embrace Variation’

Variation in people, methods of working, methods of reporting, linguistic ability,

What have we learned


Greed● In preparing the bid, when the outcome is

unknown, nearly all partners are reasonable about effort, cost, and their requirements

● In preparing a bid remember that few partners will actually help doing the drafting

● Once the Commission says that it will negotiate a contract but says budget adjustments are necessary- Nearly all partners become greedy or should I

say ‘have enhanced effort and cost needs’

- Everyone thinks they are being fair

- Everyone has a special case


Collaboration Channels● There are too many communication

channels available ● There are too few communication

channels available that work at all partners and countries

● Information comes via web, wikis, email, post, teleconference, skype-conference, adobe-connect

- How is it documented/recorded?- Does everyone see it?- Can you find it later?


Conference Calls● Conference calls are great and you

should use lots of them, but they should have agendas and minutes

● Approaches to calling

- Web-based tools for communication such as megameeting and adobe connect work great provided you do not use the video features

- Skype is useful for voice based conferencing but some partners institutions do not allow it

- Teleconferencing is the most reliable, but it is expensive


Some Lessons● No matter what EU country your

project partners come from they will all share the following cultural similarities with you:- People will think you said what is most

advantageous to them- What is not in writing was not said- What is not in writing will not happen- Partners expect to do the least for the

most money


A Common Language● English is the formal language of

nearly all European projects● But, your project will have many

languages all claiming to be the formal language including Spanglish, italglish, czechglish,

● Documents written by non-native English speakers must be copy-edited to ensure quality of expression

● Sadly this also applies to the written work of most native English speakers now.


LATENESS● Eventually nearly every Partner will be late on

some aspect of the project- Deliverables- Project Reports- Financial statements

- But it is ‘always’ the project co-ordinators fault in the eyes of:- The Commission- The Partners- The Reviewers

- Folks are always late for Conference calls and Meetings (wasting little bits of everyone’s time)


Financial Arrangements● Exchange Rate variation a problem for

some non-euro partners (or at the moment a benefit)

● Partners in some countries have difficulty producing quality financial reports in a timely fashion

● Remember although the Commission thinks they are paying for effort as a co-ordinator you want to make sure you are buying from the partners deliverables –deliverables are the measure of all projects


Working ● There is great variation in what a working

day, week, month or year is● Partners from some countries seem to

always be on ‘National Holidays’, and others just have long holiday seasons,

● Effort ‘put in’ does not always equal results output and there is cultural variation here

● Effort claimed is often difficult to match with the work some partners produce

● Staff at some partners talk a lot about working and work little


Quality Assurance● Deliverables must be quality assured● Many partners do not like it when the

process shows up weaknesses in their work

● Do not try to quality assure partial deliverables

● The process of quality assurance needs to be very FORMAL in terms of documentation and workflow

● Better to be caustic internally than to let the reviewers take your project apart deliverable by deliverable


Documentation● Some Partners keep time and effort

data well, but others ….● Some partners provide detailed

reports● Some partners provide minimal levels

of documentation● You need to declare what software

you will use for producing reports and define the templates at the outset


To Do at Outset● Get a website early and keep it upto date● Define your internal collaboration and

documentation channels at the outset● Define QA procedures and enforce them● Try to work only with people you know

well● Be clear about who is in charge early● Establish clear project management

practices and remember most researchers do not understand project mangement


Collaborative Projects: Why Bother?

● Because excellent research requires teams

● Cross institutional teams have the possibility of delivering more than single institutional ones

● European and International projects bring intellectual vibrancy to research that leads to innovation

● Because they are challenging