ELIXIR-STEERS WP1: Coordination and support

The management structure proposed for ELIXIR-STEERS is based on the current governance structure of ELIXIR which has proven to be valued in the previous EC project (ELIXIR-EXCELERATE and ELIXIR-CONVERGE). The project will benefit from the fact that we are using governance bodies already in place with extensive experience in EC grants, minimising the time required to mobilise the project.

Deputies will be named in all governance and management bodies with diversity, geographical location and gender balance considered when defining the composition of the boards. ELIXIR will act as coordinator and chair of the General Assembly (GA) (composed of representatives of all project beneficiaries that have delegated the decision making to the ELIXIR Heads of Nodes (HoN)) and the Management Board (MB: Coordinator + WP Leaders + Project Manager).

ELIXIR’s existing independent Scientific Advisory Board and Industry Advisory Committee will be used to provide external governance reviews on project activities. While the MB will be responsible for the implementation of any decision affecting the description of action or resource allocation, it will have to be approved by the GA.

Goals and responsibilities for each board will be formalised through the consortium agreement and detailed in the Project Handbook. The Project Handbook will also include the internal communication plan and procedures.

Leadership: Laura Carletti, Juan Arenas and Nikki Coutts (ELIXIR Hub)

Participants: All partners will contribute to this task.

This task comprises the execution of the project plan in collaboration with the project boards, WP leaders and the project participants. All monitoring and control activities (technical, financial, KPIs, risk, issues, quality assurance, change management) will be carried out as defined in the Project Handbook.

Monitoring and control activities will require input from all participants and will be reported every six months at the participant, WP, and project level.

This WP is also responsible for the organisation of all project meetings: GA, MB, Board Meetings and EC Review Meetings. The WP specific meetings will be the responsibility of the WP leaders and the project partners active in each WP. Project closure is also included in this task.

Leadership: Laura Carletti, Juan Arenas and Nikki Coutts (ELIXIR Hub)

Participants: All partners will contribute to this task.

The project data management plan (DMP) will be delivered early in the project. This will build on EC Horizon Europe requirements and recommendations as well as the ELIXIR position paper on FAIR data management.

Ethical and legal compliance measures will be considered when developing the DMP and it will be updated on a regular basis to capture the relevant changes. The FAIR compliant DMP will incorporate relevant project components from each WP, while taking necessary restrictions into account. External projects using project results will have their own DMP.

Leadership: Laura Carletti, Juan Arenas and Nikki Coutts (ELIXIR Hub)

Participants: All partners are expected to contribute to the incremental versions of the DMP.

Sustainability of project results will be sought to ensure impact is maximised. Individual project outputs will be identified and evaluated to select the best approach for ensuring their sustainability considering the IP of project partners.

It is expected that project results comprising methods, guidelines, standards, training, and tools will be made accessible though ELIXIR related services and platforms and open licences will be adopted (e.g., CC BY).

To ensure proper management of sustainable outputs, a specific section will be included in the MB standing agenda (where all WPs are represented) to enable the early identification of project results and an individual sustainability pathway proposal.

Leadership: Laura Carletti, Juan Arenas and Nikki Coutts (ELIXIR Hub)

Participants: All partners will contribute to this task.

In collaboration with WP4, we will continue to build capacity in management across our ELIXIR Nodes.

• Executive management capacity across ELIXIR Nodes will be addressed in collaboration with a number of projects and initiatives, including EMMRI, Bioinfo4Women (B4W), OpenPM2 and FitSM.
• Node coordination capacity will be developed, supporting the activities of the Node Coordinators Group, to address the need from Nodes to share expertise and learn from others on how they can be more efficient and effective.
• Expertise in grant management will be tackled by ELIXIR's EC Research Funding Focus Group, providing specific advice and training to increase the quality of proposals submitted by ELIXIR Nodes.

In addition, we will continue to implement the ELIXIR Equal Opportunities Strategy and create a framework for adopting and strengthening the EC's Horizon Europe Gender Equality Plan (part of the EC Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025) within an organisation which can then be reused by the ELIXIR Nodes. This work will link to 'B4W - ELIXIR LEadership And Diversity mentoring programme - ELEAD Pilot', an ELIXIR Strategic Implementation Study which is due to start in June 2023.

As part of excellence in technical coordination, the ELIXIR Hub team will work closely with WP2-WP5 to promote adoption of the outputs generated at the European (e.g., via ELIXIR Nodes and EC projects) and international level (e.g., via the ELIXIR & GA4GH collaboration).

Leadership: Laura Carletti, Juan Arenas and Nikki Coutts (ELIXIR Hub), Alba Jene, Eva Alloza (BSC, ES)

Participants: All partners will contribute to this task.