JRU RoGrid

1. JRU RoGrid • RoGrid Consortium • RoGrid JRU set-up • RoGrid JRU Implementation • Internal organization • Activity coordination • Communication facilities • JRU Evaluation Prof.dr. Doina Banciu Scientific Director of ICI Bucharest RoGrid coordinator

2. RoGrid Consortium • Set up in May 2002, at the initiative of the Ministry for Communication and Information Technology and the Ministry of Education and Research • Structure: seven organizations from research, academia and IT business: • National Institute for R&D in Informatics (ICI) – coordinator • University “Politehnica” of Bucharest (UPB) • National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering (NIPNE) • National Institute for Aerospace Research (INCAS) • University of Bucharest (UB) • Institute for Nuclear Research Piteşti (ICN) • SIVECO Company

3. RoGrid Consortium • Objectives: • To increase awareness about RO-GRID activities and benefits among potential users • To encourage and facilitate the involvement of other interested and competent institutions nation wide • To support the development of the RO-GRID integrated project as a consistent and coherent part of the European R&D activity in this field

4. RoGrid Consortium • Main results: • Drafting the Strategy for Grid development in Romania (June 2003) • Participation in FP6 Projects EGEE and SEE-GRID as Joint Research Unit including five member organisations: ICI, UPB, NIPNE, INCAS and UB • Joint training events at the consortium level • Set-up and running 8 sites in EGEE and/or SEEGRID infrastructures • Participation in Grid research projects funded by National Programmes • Participation in the Working Group for the implementation of the National Grid Infrastructure, established in July 2006 according the decision of the Ministry for Education and Research, National Authority for Scientific Research

5. RoGrid JRU Set up • JRU membership • Five research RoGrid member organizations: • ICI – coordinator • UPB – National Center for Information Technology, • NIPNE • INCAS • University of Bucharest • Kick-off event • First EGEE I contract amendment

6. RoGrid JRU Implementation (1) • Internal organization: • A leader for each project component / activity appointed by ICI as EGEE contractor • A person in charge for each project component appointed by each JRU partner All together form the coordination team for that project component, being in charge with: • planning and control of the JRU activity for the given component according to project objectives, • execution of the allocated budget, • validation of the monthly reported activity by each project team member. The members of the coordination team are included in the EGEE mailing lists for the their component. • Project team members may participate in more than one project component

7. RoGrid JRU Implementation (2) • JRU Coordination • JRU Steering Committee composed of representatives of all JRU members • SC-JRU meets at least quarterly • JRU coordinator is the project manager, who belongs to ICI • Activity leaders as members of JRU Technical Committee, who report to the JRU coordinator

8. RoGrid JRU Implementation (3) • Decision making: • Major decisions regarding JRU participation in the project are made by the Steering Committee, e.g.: • Negotiation of the JRU Consortium Agreement and related contracts • Local infrastructure development strategy • Common activity planning in training and dissemination areas • Periodic activity and budget execution assessment • Any decision making requirement generated by project activity • Current management of the RoGrid JRU is performed by its coordinator based on the following documents: • EGEE contract • EGEE Consortium Agreement • RoGrid JRU Consortium Agreement • Bilateral contracts between ICI and each JRU partner • Periodic activity and financial reports

9. RoGrid JRU Implementation (4) • Decision making (cont.): • JRU coordinator – decision making activities: • SC meetings schedule, coordination of agenda materials preparation • Corrective actions based on control information provided by activity leaders • Negotiation procedure at the EGEE II project start: • Analysis of tasks allocation and budget repartition variants based on member expertise and capabilities • Drafting and distributing a proposal among JRU partners • Chairing the SC-JRU negotiation meeting • Preparing JRU contracting documents according to SC meeting recommendations; any objection / proposal has been taken into consideration. • Implementation of SC decisions

10. RoGrid JRU Implementation (5) • Communication facilities: • The Project assistant appointed by the JRU coordinator with the following responsibilities: • to receive and distribute messages • to keep informed the project manager and interested parties on current hot subjects • to organize SC-JRU meetings and to write minutes of these events • to keep contact with financing authorities for additional local funding • to prepare draft contracts at the JRU level • to keep informed the project manager about PPT reported activity reporting at the JRU level • to administrate the contact information (e-mail, phone) at the project level • to disseminate the Steering Committee decisions • Future communication facilities: • Web forum • Multimedia communication services, based on recently installed system at ICI

11. RoGrid JRU Evaluation (1) • Strengths • Compliance with the “unique voice” principle in relation with the EGEE coordinator • Involvement of specialists from different institutions • Collaborative work level never achieved before • Joint contribution to Grid infrastructure operation at the national level • Developing new Grid projects in the JRU consortium framework financed by national research funds • Active and correlated participation in drafting the National Grid Strategy based on the EGEE project expertise • Coordinated actions to stimulate new teams on Grid to achieve a critical mass of researchers from large academic centers all over the country (Bucharest, Iasi, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca) • Improving interest and willingness of other research institutions and private companies to join the JRU activity

12. RoGrid JRU Evaluation (2) • Weaknesses • Not enough involvement of JRU partners in the consortium work: • late responses, poor justification of reported activity • Uneven effort in coordination activities at the JRU level between coordinator and partner institutions • Overlaps on some activities due to poor communication among JRU partners • No clear indicators or criteria to support some evaluation / validation and corrective decisions

13. RoGrid JRU Evaluation (3) • Opportunities • Exploit the potential synergy of research institutions for getting national financed projects based on competition framework • Better well-known Romanian research community in private market • Promote the Romanian Grid knowledge and expertise towards regional research communities (e.g. Moldova) • Improved capability to offer high quality Grid services to the end-users based on joint competences of the JRU team for each activity (SA1, NA2, NA3, NA4)

14. RoGrid JRU Evaluation (4) • Threats • Managerial efforts to coordinate very well-known and highly competent research teams at the national level • Negotiation of the Consortium Agreement regarding distribution of project tasks and resources • Correlation (fitting) among different cost models and execution fees • Probability to loose coordinating control due to the tendency to develop independent work at JRU partner level

15. Conclusions • JRU is a valuable mechanism to coordinate the local activity based on joint vision and interests of the member institutions • Strengths and opportunities are more evident than its limitations • The coordination effort of the project contractor is reimbursed by the JRU model advantages • The commitment of the top level project management to support JRU model is decisive in its successful implementation at the project level • Simplification of financial regulations (cost model issues) in FP7 will facilitate the use of this collaboration model