e-Project Team Responsibilities
This document refers to the teams constituted for Phase II of the project development process in which project concepts approved by the ExCom are explored and developed through e-conferencing with the objective of formulating bankable project proposals. See the Project Development Process for an overview of all stages of the process.
I.Definitions
a)e-Project Team (EPT) – team constituted to manage project formulation after the Program Committee has approved a project idea and authorized exploration and discussion by surveys and e-conferencing.
b)e-Project Coordinating Committee (ECC, previously referred to elsewhere as PCC) – consisting of the project leaders/coordinators of all current e-Project Teams. ECC is responsible for establishing and maintaining uniform e-conferencing procedures, facilitating coordination on overlapping subjects, managing admin staff work and budgets associated with the e-conferences as described in the ECC/PCC’s terms of reference.
c)Program Committee (PC) is responsible for the entire process of project formulation and development as described in the PC’s terms of reference.
II.Composition of an e-Project Team
a)Each e-Project Team will be headed by a Fellow of the Academy who will be designated as the Project ChairLeader/Coordinator, who has been approved by the Program Committee to head the e-Project Team.[1]
b)Each e-Project Team will normally consist of three to five Fellows, although a larger number may be required for e-projects involving a very broad range of issues or disciplines. One or more Non-fellows may also be included on the Project Team.
c)Selection/approval of team members should be left to the discretion of the project leader/coordinator. This applies only to the e-Project Teams constituted for Phase II, e-conferencing and project formulation.
d)The role of project leader/coordinator should be to elicit the views of all project team members and guide formulation of a proposal that fully takes into account the views of fellows expressed in the forums and constitutes the best consensus of project team members. In the absence of a clear consensus, the project leader / coordinator will decide on behalf of the project team.
e)The Project leader/coordinator, or his/her designate, will serve as a member of the e-Project Coordinating Committee (ECC) .
III.Supervision of e-Project Teams
a)All e-project team activities should be documented and hosted on the website and transparently available to all Fellows.
b)The Program Committee should be permanently responsible for supervising the activities of the e-project teams and project coordinators during Phase II (e-conferencing) .
c)If the Program Committee is not yet able to assume this responsibility, the SPC is willing to retain responsibility for the five e-projects that have already been approved or until the PC is fully operational.
IV.e-Project Team ResponsibilitiesTasks
a)The primary responsibility of the Project Team is to develop one or more fundable project proposals for the project concept.
b)The activities of the e-Project Teams are outlined below:
1.Frame issues/topics for discussion in the e-conference.
2.Prepare and post content for project pages, announcements and progress reports.
3.Coordinate with other e-Project Teams and with the WAAS Virtual Office to ensure the adoption and maintenance of uniform standard operating procedures for all e-conferences.
4.Conduct surveys of Fellows
5.Respond to participant contributions to encourage active participation in the e-conference
6.Moderate participant contributions to ensure they are placed in the most appropriate part of the forums, proof content for errors, and filter out inappropriate (spam) content
7.Manage subscription mailings to consolidate responses where appropriate and limit the number emails to subscribers
8.Assess conference proceedings to determine the feasibility of developing a bankable project proposal for further work.
9.Prepare a bankable project proposal (where feasible)
10.Prepare of a final report to the Program Committee with recommendations for future project formulation.
c)E-Project Team Forums – each e-Project Team will utilize a project forum for team discussion and hosting of documents related to the project.
d)Junior and Associate Fellows: The e-Project Teams may also nominate Junior Fellows and/or Associate Fellows who are willing to conduct research and manage conference proceedings under the supervision of the e-Project Team. Nominees must be approved by ExCom. The normal term of appointment will be one year or until the termination of the project.
V.Bankable Project Proposals
One of the major objective of the e-conferences is to explore the feasibility of developing bankable project proposals for future work. Therefore, assessment of the potential, and where feasible, formulation of bankable project proposals is key responsibility of the Project Team. In the event of a positive assessment, the Project Team may choose to involve other participants and/or external organizations in the formulation of a bankable proposal.
Bankable Project Proposals should address the following questions:
1.Are the objectives of the proposal in consonance with the Mission and Strategic Objectives of the Academy? How will it further the Academy’s work to fulfill its Mission, Goals and Objectives?
2.How does the subject matter of project lend itself to cross or trans-disciplinary exploration? How will it promote discussion between the arts and sciences?
3.Is there potential for an original contribution by the Academy to thought or action in this field?
4.Who is doing what in this area of concern? What are the strengths / weaknesses of the Academy and external opportunities that create a comparative advantage to address some facet?
5.What is the reasonable researchable ideas/problems/solutions which the project will address?
6.By what methodology will the research issue be explored?
7.What are the assumptions for each exploratory phase and indicators for monitoring each phase?
8.Are there individuals or organizations with whom the Academy can partner or collaborate on the project?
9.Who within the Academy is willing to participate in the project? What roles are they willing to play?
10.Who will be the audience? What are the anticipated outputs? What is the anticipated outcome?
[1] The current e-project leaders/coordinators are those who assumed a leadership role in identifying a new project idea and submitting a concept paper/proposal to the SPC and expressed their willingness to continue in the role of project leaders/coordinators during the e-conferencing phase of project development. The names of these individuals were submitted to ExCom and approved at the BOT meeting in August 2009.