- As the coordinator of the LCA4Bio project, CTA is responsible for establishing management procedures and governance structures to ensure effective collaboration among partners. Could you elaborate on the tools and methodologies that CTA plans to implement for project coordination, resource monitoring, quality control, and knowledge management? How does CTA intend to address potential risks and conflicts within the consortium?
CTA, as Project coordinator and WP1 leader, has been working on project
monitoring and internal communication tools to ensure a smooth development of
the project. As an example, deliverable 1.1, Magement procedures, collects all
information that the partners will follow to ensure appropriate project
coordination (i.e., communication between partners and with the European
Commission, monitoring the evolution of the actions and proceedings, monitoring
of resources, quality assurance and knowledge management).
Project coordinator will be constantly checking that the work is being
done and deadlines and milestones are being met. By doing this in advance, any
potential risk can be addressed and avoided.
During the General Assemblies and Steering Committee meetings risks and
conflicts are constantly being evaluated to solve or avoid them. Also, partners
are encouraged to communicate when a possible risk could arise.
- CTA plays a crucial role in monitoring the progress of the project, including tasks, milestones, and financial aspects. How does CTA plan to ensure that goals and objectives are achieved within the established timeline? Could you provide insights into the key performance indicators (KPIs) that CTA will use to track project progress and how these will be reported to the European Commission in periodic reports?
The progress of each task within the project lifecycle is being constantly monitored during the general assemblies and steering committee meetings (which are held every 3 to 6 months). Furthermore, each task leader, together with the project coordinator is responsible for monitoring the progress of the tasks within the specific work package. The monitoring of the progress of the project will be performed with the help of KPIs, that will be reported by CTA to the EC in the Periodic Reports, including the updates on technical and financial parts.
- The establishment of an External Advisory Board (EAB) is essential for providing guidance and ensuring project alignment with objectives and impact. How does CTA plan to select members for the EAB, and what criteria will be considered? How will CTA utilize the feedback provided by the EAB to enhance project progress, and how often will the EAB meet throughout the project duration?
The EAB selection has already started, and we have already two potential members which will be part of it.
Contactica, together with the contribution of the whole consortium, are contacting potential participants independent from LCA4BIO’s consortium and willing to provide relevant advice on the project’s course of action and implementation. The followed criteria is to find relevant experts in LCA methodology and/or experts in topics similar to LCA4BIO (such us enviromental impact and circularity biobased systems). The EAB members will be invited to attend at least 1 meeting per year (face to face or online). They are expected to follow up project’s progress and results and to give a feedback on the scientific and technical results. Furthermore, these connections with the EAB member will contribute to the knowledge transfer and the maximization of the project’s dissemination and results’ impacts. Within this EAB also some sister projects may be invited since it is a very good opportunity to exchange ideas and cooperate together.
- CTA is involved in developing the Data Management Plan (DMP) to ensure the proper handling, sharing, and preservation of research data generated during the project. Could you outline the key components of the DMP, including data collection, processing, sharing, and storage procedures? How will CTA ensure that research data is made FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) while safeguarding property rights and ensuring data security?
The DMP will include information such as: the procedures for handling research data during and after the end of the project, which type of will be collected, processed and / or generated, which methodology and standards will be applied; whether data will be shared or made open access and how data will be stored and preserved both during and after the end of the project. The DMP will also tackle the data security, that is, how data will be protected from unauthorised access. The DMP will be prepared as a living document using the https://argos.openaire.eu/ platform, supported by data and metadata (unless confidential) published on open repositories such as Zenodo with unique and persistent identifiers – thus making data citable and preserving data provenance and findability. LCI datasets will be available in multiple formats such as ILCD, Ecospold2 which ensures data interoperability as these formats can be supported in different LCA software.