D E F I N I T I O N O F Q U A L I T Y C O N T R O L P R O C E D U R E

Transcription

1 D E F I N I T I O N O F Q U A L I T Y C O N T R O L P R O C E D U R E D 1.1 Document identifier: V-Must.net - D1.1 Definition of quality control procedure V.1.1 Due Date of Delivery to EC End of Month Month 6 31 July2011 Actual Date of Delivery to EC 08/06/2011 Document date: 29/04/2011 Deliverable Title: Work package: Lead Beneficiary: Other Beneficiaries Authors: Document status: Document link: D1.1 Definition of quality control procedure V.1.1 WP1 APRE CNR, IME, CREF CYI, CINECA, Fraunhofer, KCL, UVA, VisDim APRE Draft Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 1/12

2 Changes Version Date Comment Authors APRE def APRE Copyright notice: Copyright V-Must.net. For more information on V-Must.net, its partners and contributors please see The information contained in this document reflects only the author's views and the Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 2/12

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION PROJECT DELIVERABLE PROCEDURES HOW TO PRODUCE DELIVERABLES DELIVERABLE TEMPLATE QUALITY OF DELIVERABLES DELIVERABLE STANDARD QUALITY CRITERIA TACIT CONSENT TIME-SCHEDULE EXECUTIVE BOARD REVIEW REPORTING OBLIGATIONS INTERIM REPORTS ASSESSMENT OF THE REPORTING QUALITY ONLINE SUBMISSION OF FORM C VIA NEF ORIGINAL VERSION OF SIGNED/STAMPED FORM C CERTIFICATE OF FINANCIAL STATEMENT (CFS) UPLOADING CFS ON NEF EXCHANGE INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTS DOCUMENTS CODING CODING VISUAL IDENTITY AND WEBSITE PUBLICATION POLICY DISSEMINATION EVENTS Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 3/12

4 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This document identifies the working tools and describes the processes that will be in place for the V-MusT.net consortium members as part of a quality project assurance. The definition of quality control procedures aims at developing and maintaining a Quality Plan during the project overall duration. The implementation of the Quality control procedures is under the Executive Board responsibility and has the final goal to verify and ensure the proper achievement of the project objectives, prior to the final approval by the Project General Assembly and the subsequent submission to the European Commission. The Quality control procedures have been drafted in accordance with the provisions of Annex I and the Consortium Agreement. 2. INTRODUCTION In Task 1.3 Quality check and project continuous monitoring (Resp. CNR) the definition of specific quality control procedures (D1.1) is planned to develop and implement a process baseline, on which the Executive Board will monitor the project progress, stage by stage. This report, intended as a reference tool for the project participants, identifies the quality control procedures as a well suited set of internal rules, scientific and organizational requirements, fundamental principles and control points. This set of recommendations will ensure that the consortium activities meet all the obligations related to the Grant Agreement with the European Commission, in the full respect of the V-MusT.net Consortium Agreement. The purposes of the Quality control procedures are the following: (i) make the V-MusT.net users/participants confident in the quality of the work that the project teams are performing, putting in evidence how the project is developed, measured, monitored, accounted and safeguarded during its implementation, (ii) clearly define the content, format, sign-off and review process, and responsibilities for each deliverable, (iii) make visible all the means that are applied to meet the beneficiaries' technical and quality requirements, (iv) provide the Executive Board, acting as supplier s quality authority, with adequate information to organize quality assurance and control activities that include transfer of information, verification actions, etc., (v) provide all the V-MusT.net project participants with procedures, rules and applicable methods, (vi) formulate requirements for the project (requirements that must be fulfilled and for which satisfaction may be verified). 3. PROJECT DELIVERABLE PROCEDURES 3.1. HOW TO PRODUCE DELIVERABLES Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 4/12

5 Deliverables are official documents, accompanying periodic reports, which are enumerated in Annex I. They serve as content-oriented reporting towards the European Commission and are also indicators of the project progress. Following Annex I (see: List of Deliverables) each deliverable is identified by a Lead Beneficiary, responsible for its generation. The Lead Beneficiary is represented by the person in charge of scientific and technical/technological aspects of the beneficiary, acting in this case as editor. Each deliverable has also a concerned WP/task leader assigned as auditor, whose duty is to give the final approval of the document. Although according to the GA and the Consortium Agreement, the Coordinator has to monitor the compliance of the beneficiaries obligations (GA, Annex II, Art. 2), both in respect of timing and work plans (deliverables), the activities of each work package falls under the responsibility of the respective WP leader 1, and the Executive Board duties 2 include the monitor and control of the project outputs, the Lead-beneficiary is fully responsible for the deliverable quality and is required to maintain adequate control on the participants contributions. This duty is extended to all levels of subcontractors. The Lead Beneficiary s responsibilities include the following activities: - Assembling and homogenizing inputs from WP partners - document writing and editing,, - Document finalization and revision by the WP leader - Document submission to the Coordinator and to the Executive Board for final approval, in good time for publication (public deliverables) or before the GA delivery date (see Annex I to the GA: Deliverables list) DELIVERABLE TEMPLATE Deliverable documents are edited following a standard format (D1.2a Deliverable template) created within the scope of the project, approved by the Executive Board, circulated to the partners and stored in the project intranet (V-MusT.net Consortium Area Document Library). The use of the format-template for deliverables is mandatory. The deliverable template includes the following information on the cover page: document identifier, title, WP, lead beneficiary, other collaborating beneficiaries, author/s, status (draft/final version), due/actual date, document link ( for public reports); in the footer: the Grant Agreement n , the lead beneficiary and the dissemination status 3. 1 CA art. 6.1: Work Package Leader... those beneficiaries responsible for the coordination, execution and reporting of the concerned Work Package activities, as foreseen in Annex I to the EC-GA. 2 CA Art. 6.1 The Executive Board... the supervisory body for the execution of the Project which shall report to and be accountable to the Project General Assembly. 3 PU-Public, PP-Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services, RE-Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services), CO-Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services). Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 5/12

6 Whenever the deliverables are not documents but prototypes or others, a short written deliverable is also required, so that the EC has a record of their existence (According to Annex I to the GA, Prototypes: D4.3; D4.4; ; D4.5; D5.3; D7.4; D8.1; D8.4; D8.7;D8.9, Others: D8.8). As explained in the following section, the scientific deliverables facing the approval by the Executive Board, prior to their release to the European Commission, are subject to an inhouse review QUALITY OF DELIVERABLES In order to improve the quality and completeness of significant deliverables, prior to their formal submission to the EC, a revision process has been set-up. It is foreseen that all deliverables are sent by the Lead-beneficiary to the WP leader and Task leaders and/or WP participants and assessed by the concerned WP leader to ensure the quality standard and timely delivery. The WP Leader could request modifications or reject scientific deliverables that do not adequately fulfil the standard quality criteria, and the Lead-beneficiary should use the best endeavours to avoid any possible disagreement. After the completion of the review process the Coordinator and the Executive Board finally agree to deliver/publish the ultimate version. According to the delivery date specified in Annex I to the GA, deliverables are provided by converting the report into PDF and uploading the document in the project intranet V- MusT.net Consortium Area - Document Library Workpackages - Deliverables. For Public deliverables the Coordinator will publish the official document directly on V-MusT.net public web-site pages. All deliverables will be finally submitted by the coordinator to the EC through NEF, which is hosted by the Participant Portal DELIVERABLE STANDARD QUALITY CRITERIA All scientific deliverables are expected to be of a quality similar to a peer reviewed international publication. In addition to the quality criteria usually applied for conference or journal papers, the authors, lead-beneficiaries contact persons and reviewers, somehow involved in the assessment of the deliverables quality should use their best endeavours to ensure that the document: (i) clearly addresses the subject matter and the objectives described in the Annex I (any deviations, if present, must be sufficiently motivated and explained); (ii) is factually correct, tailored to the size and complexity of the concerned task, putting the work in relation with the V-MusT.net architecture and goals; (ii) quotes and discusses sufficiently the related work; (iii) points out the activity and results of each Task participant (if the deliverable has several authors or has been produced in collaboration among different V-MusT.net beneficiaries); Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 6/12

7 (iv) is consistent with the previous deliverables, if any (this provision refers to deliverables with multiple deadlines or to multiple deliverables related to a single activity); (vi) mentions in explicit way the items referred to other/later deliverables, (e.g. the complete deliverable numbering ref.) and includes a glossary of acronyms and main terms (in particular for public deliverables); (vii) is spell-checked and conforms to the standard deliverable format (Deliverable Template) TACIT CONSENT Generally WP Leader/Executive Board tacit consent will be deemed adequate for the deliverables approval. The Lead-beneficiary contact person will submit the draft-deliverable to the WP leader. When the document notice is ed by the Lead-beneficiary (or subsequently by the WP leader to the Executive Board/Coordinator) a deadline for comments is given (could not be less than 1 week). When the Executive Board has approved the deliverable, the Coordinator submits it to the Commission using the FP7 reporting tool NEF together with the periodical project reports TIME-SCHEDULE EXECUTIVE BOARD REVIEW The Lead-beneficiary s contact person should submit the draft-deliverable to the WP leader for approval, comments and suggestions, at least 3 weeks before the deadline indicated in Annex I. The WP leader should submit the draft-deliverable to the Executive Board members/coordinator for the final approval, at least 2 weeks before the deadline of the indicated in Annex I. 4. REPORTING OBLIGATIONS Periodic reports are required by the Commission within 60 days from the end of each project reporting period (P1: M1-12; P2: M13-24; P3: M25-36; P4: M37-48). They require an high level of accuracy of data and partners contributions as well as the commitment to strict deadlines. A report is also produced within 60 days from the end of the project. The accomplishment of the GA reporting requirements, including the production of administrative data/doc. (explanation of the use of resources, financial statements, certificates on financial statements, when applicable, etc.), technical data/doc. (work progress and achievements in each WP, reports, attended events, publications, etc.) are under the responsibility of each beneficiary, who promptly corrects any error therein of which he is notified by the Coordinator. Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 7/12

8 In order to assure the accurateness of contents and data the Project Management Office will receive all document by the partner only by means of the Beneficiary contact person/s identified during the project negotiation in the GPF, as the: (i) Person in charge of administrative, legal and financial aspects; (ii) Person in charge of scientific and technical/technological aspects. Any modifications to the contact persons data must be communicated as soon as possible to the Project management Office for the due transmission to the EC INTERIM REPORTS Apart from the EC reporting obligations, four additional Interim Reports (on a six months basis) have been planned to allow an active monitoring of the work performed and to guarantee a coordinated management of both project activities and resources, taking corrective measures when needed. In preparation of the Interim Report, all partners should provide a (brief) description of the activities in the concerned six months period (M1-6; M13-18; M25-30; M36-42) together with an estimation of the person-months and resources spent so far. These information will be collected by the WP Leader who will in turn provide the concerned WP Interim Report ASSESSMENT OF THE REPORTING QUALITY The work progress is ensured by an assessment process under the WP leaders responsibility, who support the Project Management Office in assembling and validating the beneficiaries contributions in the concerned WP.. The scientific/technical part of the report is collected by the WP and Task leaders, who are in charge for checking its completeness, consistency with the work plan and standard quality. The financial part of the report (explanation of the use of the resources, financial statements, certificates on financial statements when applicable, etc.), is under each partner s responsibility.. Each beneficiary shall submit to the Project Management Office its contributions, including the information required by the NEF online tool, no later than thirty (30) days after the end of each reporting period. The layout and contents of the project reports shall match with the instructions and guidance notes established by the Commission and circulated by the Project Management Office. The Project Management Office, supported by the Executive Board, assembles the beneficiaries inputs, verifies their appropriateness and gives them homogeneity in view of the official submission to the EC. The Executive Board consensus on the final version of the report is then circulated to all partners (Project General Assembly) for the last review and approval before the official delivery to the European Commission. 5. ONLINE SUBMISSION OF FORM C VIA NEF As for the financial part of the Periodic report, the beneficiary is requested to, Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 8/12

9 access the online EC reporting tool called NEF trough the Participant Portal, fill-in the electronic Form C, uploading its financial data. The access is opened to the Beneficiary contact person/s identified as such during the project negotiation in the GPF. The Coordinator is requested to, review all beneficiaries inputs and, when the set of reports is complete, proceed with the on line submission of the whole Periodic Report In case of partner/s which do not complete on time their Form C on the NEF and to avoid delays with the EC interim payments, affecting all other partners - the Executive Board may decide that no Financial Statements for his/her organisation will be included in the submission to the EC for that reporting period. Consequently the partner/s will not receive any interim payment for that reporting period ORIGINAL VERSION OF SIGNED/STAMPED FORM C Following the Forms C electronic submission to the EC, the beneficiary will be notified by the Project Management Office to proceed as follows: download the.pdf version of Form C from NEF, print 2 copies of the Form C, sign and stamp them (no photocopies or any other file are accepted!), send them to APRE as Project Management Office member (APRE - Agency for the Promotion of European Research, Via Cavour n Rome, Italy). The Coordinator will then collect all signed Forms C and send them to the EC, together with the Periodic Report, The payments execution depends upon the receipt and approval of the whole Periodic report, signed in original together with all Form Cs. 6. CERTIFICATE OF FINANCIAL STATEMENT (CFS) Certificates of Financial Statements (CFS) have to be provided by the project partner whose costs exceed whenever this cumulative ceiling is reached. In V-MusT.net, the following partners are subjects of CFS: CNR, CINECA, Fraunhofer UPLOADING CFS ON NEF If a CFS is required, the beneficiary will be requested to scan and upload it on the NEF tool. Note that the CFS must be signed by an external auditor before the uploading. Beneficiaries are however required to keep the originals of CFS for audit purposes by the Commission. 7. EXCHANGE INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTS Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 9/12

10 During the lifetime of the V-MusT.net project, many documents will be produced. In order to ensure consistent document presentation, as well as that the participants are using the same document in a cooperative manner, the following formats are suggested, text documents: Word files (.doc format MS Word 2003, excluding.docx to facilitate multiparty interchange). slide presentations: Power Point files (.ppt format MS PowerPoint 2003, excluding.pptx); tables, spreadsheets (cost claim calculations): Excel files (.xls format MS Excel 2003, excluding.xlsx). images: JPEG (.ipg) or PNG format. releases of consolidated project documents: PDF (.pdf format) for meeting agenda, minutes, reports, deliverables, etc.). However, before any submission to the European Commission, all documents, reports, deliverables, etc. have to be sent to the Coordinator also in editable format. If multiple authors are requested to edit documents at the same time, co-authors should mark up the modifications by using the track changes mode DOCUMENTS CODING The name coding for the deliverable is the following: [DW.T-x _Ver.x.x _YYYYMMDD_NN] for example: D1.2-1_Ver.0.2_ Where: DW.T-x is the deliverable reference; Ver.x.x is the version number (0.1, 0.2 etc); YYYMMDD year, month and day of preparation of the version; NN is the initials of the commenter, used when needed. For any documents exchanged the following coding should be used: [XXXX_yyyy _Ver.x.x _YYYYMMDD_NN] for example: CNR_Resources Ver.0.2_ Where: XXXX is the short name of the origin partner (Participant short name: CNR, APRE, etc.) yyyy is the doc title or doc purpose, Ver.x.x is the version number (0.1, 0.2 etc) Status is the Draft or status YYYMMDD year, month and day of preparation of the version. Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 10/12

11 7.2. CODING The exchanges should always quote the V-Must project : [V-MusT.net_WPn._topic] for example: V_MusT.net_WP1_Periodic Report. A mailing list system has been generated per each Governing Body and the Coordinator: coordinator@v-must.net; executiveboard@v-must.net; generalassembly@v-must.net; pmo@v-must.net. 8. VISUAL IDENTITY AND WEBSITE Based on the project logo, designed by NL, the Executive Board agreed on a visual identity for V-MusT.net. This identity, embodied in a logotype, is referred to the layout and style of: Web pages, Documents / Reports / Deliverables, Dissemination materials, Publications, PPT slides. All partners should communicate project activities and results using the community identity and, thus, the foreseen templates for all public V-MusT.net presentations. Moreover, all reports and deliverables that are generated within the project should use the official project templates with the V-MusT.net logo. As previously mentioned, templates and project logos are available for downloading on the web-page V-MusT.net Consortium Area Logos and Templates restricted site. 9. PUBLICATION POLICY The V-Must.net internal provisions regarding dissemination activities, including (but not restricted to) publications and presentations, as well the right to publish or allow the publishing of partners Foreground or Background data, are described in the Consortium Agreement Section Dissemination. In accordance with the CA, all publications must include the following statement within their acknowledgement section: The research leading to these results is partly funded by the EU Community's FP7 ICT under the V-MusT.net Project (Grant Agreement ) The publication reflects only the author s views and the Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. Neither the V-MusT.net consortium as a whole, nor a certain participant of the V-MusT.net consortium, warrant that the information contained in this document is capable of use, nor that use of the information is free from risk, and accepts no liability for loss or damage suffered by any person using this information. Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 11/12

12 10. DISSEMINATION EVENTS The WP leader is responsible for designing and scheduling the dissemination and publicity campaign at International/European level and he is also responsible for the overall coordination, monitoring, periodical evaluation and review of the dissemination and publicity campaign. WP leader, on annual basis, should send to Coordinator and V-Must.net participants an updated lists of relevant events. Each partner is requested to inform the WP leader on relevant international/european/national events where V-Must.net could be presented and disseminated. Grant Agreement APRE PUBLIC 12/12