WP1 Project management and coordination
WP1 covers the entire project period. It includes activities aimed at monitoring and reporting the project development from technical, administrative and financial points of view as well as timing and coordination among the WPs and tasks and the management of any modification to the project work plan and task development.
The SmartWB project leadership will be ensured by the legal representative of the Grant Holder - University of Montenegro (UoM).
The Project Management Committee (PMC) will be established on the kick-off meeting and will lead all project activities and be responsible for the achievement of the project outcomes. UoM will coordinate PMC activities, with participation of other 6 Work Package Leaders. PMC will be responsible for full enforcement of the project activities and it will coordinate day-to-day management with the contact persons from Consortium members’ HEIs. In this way, it will be possible to achieve appropriate balance between delegation of responsibilities and maintaining overall control of project staff performance.
At the kick-off meeting the Steering Committee (SC) will be established which will consist of one representative from each of the SmartWB partners. The SC will adopt all created plans and will be one hierarchical level above the PMC. At the end of each project year, the SC will evaluate implemented activities and outputs and make more detailed plan for upcoming period and ensure exploitation of project outcomes. Both SC and PMC meetings will be held twice a year.
The project coordinator will have the crucial role in organising all SmartWB activities, and will be in charge of the achievement of the project deliverables. Each Consortium member will be expected to establish its local support group responsible for administration and smooth implementation of actions, project related administration and financial issues, as well as submission of internal reports.
Project management and reporting guide will be created including special part related to the risk management.
WP1 also includes reporting and communication with NEOs, project officer and EACEA.
As the summarized management activities, two reports (progress and final) will be submitted to the EACEA on time.
WP2 Analysis of current status in climate-smart urban development
Identification of Western Balkans regional issues related to urban development will be done in WP1 leaded by BOKU. The result of this activity will be report on WB regional issues related to urban development that will be used for preparing platform for knowledge and practice sharing.
Three-day workshop on climate-friendly and innovative solutions will be held at BOKU in April 2021, where the up-to-date topics related to climate-smart urban development (CSUD) will be analysed and presented.
The general overview of existing successful models of education in the field of CSUD of Programme Country HEIs and comparative analysis with the existing curricula in Partner Countries will represent the basic guidelines for the definition and development of the courses in WB countries.
The occurred risks will be exceeded by two folded day-to-day communication 1) among SmartWB partners and 2) between SmartWB partners and small and medium enterprises in private and public sector in the field of urban development, NGOs and government bodies in this field.
WP3 Capacity building of WB HEIs
Within the WP3, leaded by URJC, the Third country not associated to the Programme teaching staff will be trained in Programme Country partner HEIs to acquire new practical skills in the field of CSUD.
Each of the Third country not associated to the Programme HEI will define the local working group which will be responsible for the modernisation of university courses, collaboration with the industry sector, providing positions for students’ internships and defining training programmes for students’ internships. Working groups will be under the supervision and control of the Project Management Committee. All preliminary reports and defined programmes will be prepared and analysed on the meetings and their short descriptions will be presented to the Steering Committee for the final review and approval.
WP3 covers the set of the infrastructure required for providing better environment and conditions for achieving cooperation with the non-academic sector and also student education. The laboratory equipment, software and library units will be purchased in order to provide to the students modern study programmes harmonized with Programme Country best practices. The equipment will be installed in the Third country not associated to the Programme HEI’s laboratories.
The risk of late delivery of purchased equipment will be mitigated by adequate planning of tendering procedure from the project beginning.
WP4 Creating technological platform
The WP4 will be led by UET and summarise well-established solutions for climate action and adaptation to climate change such as intelligent transport solutions for freight and passenger transport, environmental sensors, intelligent waste management, sustainable food supply, safe drinking water supply and natural disaster risk management. These solutions should be also applied in the WB region in order to follow towards a greenhouse gas-neutral way of life. Therefore, the developed platform should be the way for promotion of low emission economic practices and resilient infrastructures.
WP5 Implementation of modernized courses and platform
The WP5 will be led by UNSA. In this WP students will be enrolled. The enrolment will be conducted according to the legal Third country not associated to the Programme HEI’s procedures with precise definition of the enrolment conditions. The studies will comprise teaching, learning, exercising, evaluation and examinations. During this process, students will have opportunity to be educated in the up-to-date equipped laboratories.
Self-evaluation on quality of university courses will be regularly performed twice per year in winter and summer semesters.
Developed platform will be in use by different target groups and material will be regularly posted.
WP6 Quality assurance and monitoring
The SmartWB project quality assurance and monitoring will be performed as follows:
1) Internal quality assessment will include peer reviews performed by the Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) consisting of members from the following partner HEIs: THOWL, BOKU, UNIZG and UNI as a WP5 Leader. Reports on the project quality progress will be delivered by all project participants, twice a year. The QAC will prepare quality reports twice a year after its meetings and send them to the SC.
2) External quality assessment will be enabled through continuous presentation of the project activities and deliverables on the project website, as well as their publishing in public media (newspapers, journals, electronic media etc.). External evaluator will be subcontracting for the external evaluation of the quality of achieved project results.
According to the internal and external monitoring and quality control, the QAC (if necessary) will take measures to improve the quality of the project realization. The external monitoring and peer reviews as well as the project reports will be available on the project website.
3) Inter-project coaching will be implemented i.e. Consortium members will contact the members of on-going and/or completed Erasmus+ projects in similar fields in order to use their accumulated expertise and to undertake a peer review.
Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) meetings will be held twice a year and open for the participation of representatives of all Consortium members.
Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area, developed by ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), adopted by the Bologna Process Ministers in 2005, will be taken as reference, as well as the key quality assurance principle of continuous improvement.
WP7 Impact and Dissemination
The goal of this work package is efficient dissemination and exploitation of project results and products not only in project partner countries but also outside of them. Dissemination will raise the relevance of strengthening the relations between the Third country not associated to the Programme HEIs and non-academic sector for high level education in the field of climate-smart urban development, especially in technology driven courses, to increase awareness about the project and its results within its main target groups (representatives from industrial sector, teachers, students, professionals and other representatives from academic and non-academic institutions, representatives from government bodies and local administration) and to assure that the project results will be maintained and further developed after the completion of the project.
Project dissemination will involve institutional, national and international level of activities. It will be focused on promotion the project itself, its objectives and achieved results and participants and to raise awareness of not only target groups but also general public about the potential benefits of the project results.
One of the first tasks in WP7 is development of the project website, which will be used for presenting project activities. Special attention will be devoted to the promotion of the project on social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. The awareness campaign will include advertising on the TV, radio and in on-line or printed newspapers.
Special attention will be paid to promote using emission reduction approaches and low-carbon technologies. The WB partners will organize promotions for WB non-partner HEIs using roundtables and promotional events. All events will be documented and posted on the project website.
In the long-term perspective of the SmartWB project, it is necessary to increase the public and state authorities’ awareness for the significance of the climate-friendly solutions and needs for green jobs in urban development. This goal will be achieved mainly through the distribution of brochures and leaflets aimed to provide all relevant project information to interested stakeholders, as well as to publish information about SmartWB in mass media and in direct contact at the organised promotional events. The feedbacks received from the stakeholders will be meaningful for the preparing recommendations for the national bodies in order to strenghten conditions in climate-smart urban development in WB countries.
Most of the performance indicators are quantifiable (minimum quantities will be defined in the Dissemination and Exploitation plan). Dissemination impact will be measured partly by directly measurable indicators (number of attendees, circulation of magazines, training participants) and part by indirectly measurable indicators (web site visitors, etc.).
After M36, the Third country not associated to the Programme HEIs will enhance the quality of the education to the EU level and will be well prepared for further international scientific, educational and research programmes.
