Althea WilkinsonRadioNet Project Manager

University of Manchester Jodrell Bank Observatory

Mid-Term ReviewManagement AspectsGrenoble April 2007

Outline

• Collaboration and Interaction - LGurvits• Administrative• Financial

– Current status– Comparison with original planning– Situation for rest of FP6 project– Recommendations for FP7

Finance workshops

• Finance workshop – October 2005 – – Aimed at administrative staff supporting

RadioNet around Europe– Best practice for Form C, Justification of

costs, audits etc.• Finance workshop for SKADS coordinators

administration at their start-up, Dec 2005– Best practice, pitfalls, etc

RadioNet Management Structure

RadioNet Board

Project Scientist Project Manager

Executive Committee

Administrative Assistant Project Officer

Joint Research Activities Networking Transnational Access

Management - administration• RadioNet has worked well – achieved goal of improving

European contact and collaboration

• Scientific and Technical management– By JRA Leaders, NA leaders and TNA contacts

• Administrative and financial management– Shared administrative responsibility between JBO and JIVE – Contract amendment – Co-ordination of reporting – technical and financial– Distribution of EC finance – Co-ordination of audits

Communication within RadioNet• 2 Board meetings/year – different functions & sizes• Sub-committees (eg FP7) - telecons

• Communication via RMT (about every 6 weeks) and Exec telecons (~ every 3 months)

• WIKI – temporary document exchange, meetings in formation, minutes, etc.

• Permanent RadioNet Document Archive – storage of all documents, plans, minutes, etc.

Administration (4)

• Issues– Role of JIVE as separate banker –

mechanism needs to be streamlined for FP7– Sanctions on feedback difficult to enforce– Look at more use of videoconferencing

• JBO Management team produced 582kg of CO2 in flights for this meeting

Finance - Overall statusY1 Y2 Y3 Total Left

2,759,164 2,994,062 2,841,528 8,594,754 3,802,236

Total spend, actual versus original budget

0.00

500,000.00

1,000,000.00

1,500,000.00

2,000,000.00

2,500,000.00

3,000,000.00

3,500,000.00

4,000,000.00

M1-M12 M13-M24 M25-M36 M37-M48 M49-M60

Reporting period, month x to month y

€

Original

Actual

Predicted for 2007

Finance – TNA status

TNAs actual spend to end Dec 2006 vs. original budget

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

JBO

IRAMINAF

PPARCEVN

TNA trav

el

MPIfR

ASTRON

CHALMERSUMK

Facility/Institute

€

ActualOriginal budget

TNAs

• 135% claimed in Y1 – hence 65% in Y5• Hours of access lower in Y3 – engineering

works – still 1.9 x minimum• Re-allocations – to create contingency

– So far 2.5%– By end of Y5 – 3%– Enables outreach, workshops and training

meetings, Hands on Universe, SKA office contribution, calendars, etc…

TNA reallocations

Re-allocations compared to original budget

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

JBO

IRAMINAF

PPARCJIV

E

JIVE tr

avel

MPIfR

ASTRON

CHALMERSUMK

Institute

€

RealloactionsOriginal budget

TNA issues

• Publications – Y2 – 5– Y3 – 63 – increasing satisfactorily– Acknowledgement of RadioNet

• User feedback– Feedback forms not uniformly returned

• AI from Board meeting to re-circulate TNA operators with guidelines, and on operators to ensure acknowledgment and feedback achieved

JRAs - ALBUSALBUS actual versus projected spend to end Dec

2006

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

JIVE JBO MPIfR ASTRON

Institute

€ ActualProjected

Funded activity will continue to end of FP6 RadioNet

JRAs - PHAROSPHAROS actual vs projected spend to end Dec 2006

050000

100000150000200000250000300000350000400000450000500000

ASTRON JBO INAF UMK UBIR MECSA

Institute

€

ActualProjected

JBO development (beam former) delayed – continues to end 2007

On-telescope testing – reduced programme to test only on Lovell telescope proposed

AI on further €50K funding for ASTRON

JRAs - AMSTARAMSTAR actual vs. original budget to end Dec 2006

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

450000

IRAM CHALMERS CCLRC-RAL SRON OBSPM KOSMA FG-IGN TuD

Institute

€

ActualOriginal budget

Several institutes now finished work – all complete by Dec 2007

Projected over-run of €20K – re-allocation approved by Board

Management – N1JBO Management, actual versus original budget

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

Y1 Y2 Y3 3Y total

€

Actual

Original

JIVE mangement, actual vs. original budget

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

Y1 Y2 Y3 3Y total

€

Actual

Original

Travel actual

Travel original

Management staff/other costs

Still sufficient total budget

JIVE overrunning – still positive overall

JIVE originally planned only for 4 years

Management travel

Formally over-running

Result of more activity than expected – support for Board members travel to Board meetings

Can still be accommodated within overall costs

Monitor closely

Networking – N2N2 Synergy

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

Year 1 Year2 Year3 3Y total 5Y total

€

Staff actualStaff originalTravel actualTravel original

With re-allocations

Originally planned for 2 years

Will run into 2007 with meetings and residual staff support

Networking – N3

Over-run every year

With reallocations, can run at same rate until mid 2008

N3 Science Workshops

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

Year 1 Year2 Year3 3Y total 5Y total

€

Actual

Original

Current

With re-allocations

NA3 Meetings - 2007Meeting

EVN2015

Location

Dwingeloo

Date

01-02/03/07

Cost €

2500LOFAR Science Dwingeloo 23-27/04/07 9000II EPTAM Cagliari 16-18/05/07 2500ERIS Bonn 10-15/09/07 16000

YERAC Bordeaux 16000Massive stars Heidelberg 10-14/09/07 3500Modern Radio

Universe Manchester 01-05/10/07 15000

Total 64500

Networking – N4 & N6N4 Engineering Forum, actual spend vs original budget

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

Year 1 Year2 Year3 3Y total 5Y total

€

Actual

Original

N6 ALMA Forum

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

Year 1 Year2 Year3 3Y total 5Y total

€

Actual

Original

Taken together – situation similar

Both within budget

Both started slowly

Both should complete without problems

Small re-allocations towards N3

5K from N4

10K from N6

Still to be cleared with NA chairs

Networking – N5N5 Software Forum

0100002000030000400005000060000700008000090000

Year 1 Year2 Year3 3Y total 5Y total

€

Actual

Original

Minimal activity – terminated by agreement with Board and NA5 chairs

Funds reallocated to JRAs and NAs

Re-allocation of remaining N5 funding

Left on closure on N5 65205

ALBUS for taking on remaining N5 work 13000

PHAROS, funding for Torun to attend meetings 10000

ALMA forum 10000

To NA3 32205

Networking N7N7 Astronomy Across Europe: actual spend vs

original budget

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

Year 1 Year2 Year3 3Y total 5Y total

€

Actual

Original

Current

With re-allocations

Has expanded significantly beyond original plan

Covers all outreach activities

Where most of re-allocated funds have been used

(TNA travel 30K, TNA re-allocation, 5Y,180K)

Networking – N8

N8 Spectrum Management

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

Year 1 Year2 Year3 3Y total 5Y total

€

Actual

Original

Well under control

Should complete with no problems

Projection to end 2008

Estimated Two Year Requirements

1.65 years TNA after re-allocations at 2006 rate 1 921 912

JRAs including reallocations 954 816

NAs at requested rate for 18 months 547 619

plus estimate at same rate for last 6 182 540

Total 3 606 887

Still left, in bank and with EC 3 802 236

Remaining after all projected payments 195 349

18 months Implementation Plan – 2007 to June 2008

Current request is € 3 181 352.11

EC have pointed out this is close to the maximum we can request, and have queried whether this is what we really want

We can only get 80% of unaudited EC contribution before end of project

At present, only audited up to end of Y2

Also still only get 75% of request minus what remains of previous pre-financing.

Current request will give us pre-financing of € 1 746 636.31

Implementation Plan (2)

Left to claim at start 2008 - € 87 471.80

Left to claim at start of 2009 - € 1 328 752.78

Strategy discussed at Board meeting yesterday for the

financing of the end of FP6 RadioNet

Alternatives presented were:

• Have another audit at the end of 2007

• Claim everything now

• Spread claim evenly over last two years

Strategy for financing last two years of FP6 RadioNet

• All institutes will be asked to accept an additional audit of Y4 and Y5 at the end of 2007

• The current IP will be modified slightly to increase the current request to the maximum allowable

• Only request next year will be for prefinancing freed by 2007 audit

Finance – suggestions for FP7• Bear in mind funding of:

– Contingency– Outreach– Board Meetings

• Larger fraction for management• Consider how travel should be funded

Collaboration and Interaction• Within RadioNet

– NAs and JRAs by definition are collaborative projects

– NA events facilitate collaboration on European (eg YERAC, ERIS) and worldwide (eg ALMA) scale outside RadioNet community

– Active European collaboration has grown from this experience – has worked well and we know each other better

Interactions outside RadioNet• Board meetings foster contacts at high level through “at

large” members from other I3s (ILIAS, Opticon, EuroPlanet, Astronet – now on Road Map panels )– Represented at each others Board meetings– Joint meeting with ILIAS planned for 2008

• With other major projects (ALMA,SKA etc)– Board Representatives– Plan FP7 JRAs connected with these projects

• With observatories/institutions worldwide– Outreach activities (calendars, brochures, HOU project,IAU

etc)• Attendance at EAS, IAU, I3-Net and JENAM meetings