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Challenge 4b: Management aspects
C. Scherf, Director in charge of Administration, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
Management of large infrastructures
The management of research infrastructure has to act in a field of international competition. Projects rely on the ability to attract the best people. They need a well-organised internal structure and a legal framework that enables fast and clear decision making.
Despite the different cultures of management throughout the world there are similar problems, key to the success of large infrastructure. The speaker will present his experience of managing large infrastructure investments in Germany. He will show how a decentralised approach of new public management has helped to strengthen the management of infrastructure laboratories and will conclude with a list of the ten most important aspects necessary to successfully manage such facilities.
Y. Caristan, Director of the Physical Sciences Fundamental Research Sector, Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA)
Best Practice and Business Plan
The success of an LRI resides in the capacity to provide professional management during all phases of the project, from the conception of the scientific goals to the daily operation of the installation.
Nowadays the increasing costs and the high technological level of LRIs require large international
collaborations, which make the approval and funding process more complex. The definition of the technical phases, the costing of the infrastructure, and the construction schedule must be conducted in an open and international quality standard procedure, ready for the political stakeholders to make a fully informed decision. A business plan based on a precise multi-annual financial estimate must be provided, including a reserve fund for contingencies, the operation costs and the cost of dismantling at the end of the operational period.
During construction, the role of the steering committee is essential. It must be seconded by external project review committees. A real policy of “risk management” must be conducted.
The construction of an LRI always presents some technological risks, which often require parallel R&D work. Relations with industry on the most innovative parts should be foreseen to ensure that construction meets the foreseen functions, schedule and costs.
During the operation phase, it is essential to maintain a close link with the international scientific community and conduct regular benchmarking exercises to asses the performance level of the facility compared with its international competitors.
To guarantee a constant replacement of obsolete equipment, it is highly desirable that an amortising procedure is implemented for the essential components of the installation.
L. van Dyck, Executive Coordinator of the European Life Sciences Forum (ELSF)
The continuous upgrading of Research Infrastructures:
a unique combination of constantly developing instruments and structures (the life sciences case)
In the post-genomics era, the development of high through-put technologies based on genomic information has lead to an exponential increase in the acquisition of raw data and materials in the life sciences and a concomitant reliance on infrastructures to store and analyse them.
Research in biosciences thrives on a unique combination of infrastructures encompassing, inter alia, databases and bio-computing facilities, mutant collections, bio-banks and archives, imaging techniques and infrastructures which were previously reserved for the physical sciences, such as cyclotrons and advanced spectroscopy.
These infrastructures are local or international, centralised or dispersed, physical or virtual. For each of them, specific funding and organisational mechanisms must be developed if Europe is to deliver on the promises of the biotech era.
L. Lyon, Director of UKOLN, University of Bath
Dealing with Data: Roles, Rights, Responsibilities and Relationships in the European context
This presentation will explore the strategic co-ordination, policy and planning, technical, sustainability, advocacy and training and skills issues to be considered by the European research community, and organisations whose role is to deliver e‑infrastructure for data curation and preservation. It will draw on the findings of a recent JISC-funded UK-centric study carried out by UKOLN, which examined the Roles, Rights, Responsibilities and Relationships associated with data curation. The findings, which encompassed results from UK research funding councils, data centres and institutional data repositories, will be positioned in the wider
European context, and proposals for good practice and further research will be highlighted.
