cc: imprint-ssc@bjerknes.uib.no, erick.larson@fa.uib.no
date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 08:20:18 +0100
from: Eystein Jansen <eystein.jansen@geo.uib.no>
subject: Re: travel, workshops,management
to: Keith Briffa <k.briffa@uea.ac.uk>

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Keith and other SCC members.

The budget squeeze is  problematic and  we  face 
the problem of  meeting the reality of doing what 
we were told to do: establish one large paleo 
project that showed the community could team up, 
avoid being split up in several projects with 
different foci, and then adjusting this to the 
level of funding the EU will be able to provide, 
which is  probbaly 50% less than what the project 
really needs.

I appreciate all the problems you are faced with.

With respect to travels, I think one travel per 
year of 1-2 kEuros, depending on where people 
live, for  the PI  and those employed  in a Task 
to do the job is reasonable.  This allows 
participation in key workshops and/or 
international meetings when science is ready for 
presentation and dissemination,  for the duration 
of the period the Task is being performed.
If there are excessive travel requests, they need 
to be cut. If not now, then they will be in the 
contract negotiations  when we trim the budget 
for each partner to get to the budget we have 
been given by the EU. Thus we should not do too 
much micro-management of budgets now, since all 
items and all partners will be revisited in the 
contracts phase anyhow, but exsessive demands 
need be dealt with.

In terms of management:
There are two management  aspects:
1. The science management.
2. The  project management, including financial matters, reporting etc.

What you ask for concerns 1. As I indicated in 
the meeting in London, I think it is fair to 
support the work of the WP leaders/co-leaders  of 
WP 1-4 and 6,7 with science management 
resources. My indication then was about  1 
month/year for the duration of the WP. If we 
assume that  each has a lifetime of 3 years , 
this amounts to  36 months of salary.  My 
thinking is that we need to distinguish science 
management from Project management - project 
office etc. This will also help balancing the 
management costs and avoid having inflated 
"office-costs", and show that we prioritise 
having science done. And for that we also need 
science management to support your work in 
efectively leading the WP to reach their 
objectives.
Thus the best thing is to add  1 month  to your 
institutions budgets per  year for a three year 
period, justified as WP scientific management.
This can be accomodated by  increasing the 
overall WP budgets accordingly. Hence, do not ban 
these costs, but add them to the grand total of 
the WP. I will then reduce the central 
management budget accordingly, and let this only 
deal with running the project office, centrally 
funded meetings and take care of the "mercantile" 
management.

Workshops
We need to detail how  workshops are funded. 
There will be some workshops that are for all 
partners, only a few.
Then we have the workshops to integrate data, 
which is particularly intense in WP 1. 
Particuarly in WP 1, these also  involve  people 
from outside the consortium.
I  think some workshop support needs to come from 
the central  budget. I dont think we are at the 
level ofdetail which makes it possible to 
identify excactly what we need outside of the 
first 18 months. Given the importance and the 
magnitude of the WP 1  data gathering efforts, 
and the tight squeeze on budgets,  I am inclined 
to say that the data gathering workshops needed 
in the first  half  should be  funded outside of 
the WP 1 budget of 3.7 mill. We can detail how 
this is done later,  whether by moving costs or 
inside the management budget.

Hope this clarifies some things. Comments welcome.

I am available on mobile phone today 9-12 and 
after  6 PM (+47906 18 858) for discussions. 
Central Europe time.

best wishes,
Eystein





>Oyvind
>it is clear that we need some general formula 
>for working out the travel, management costs. 
>People have used random numbers . We are having 
>to make hard cuts - and there is no room for 
>random, inflated or unreasonable costs for the 
>above. We do not know how this has been handled 
>across WPs
>but I feel you need to specify a standard amount 
>for institutional travel , that will be balanced 
>by the use of carefully chosen locations for 
>meetings.
>Also what can be included as management costs? 
>In the situation we find ourselves in , real 
>management costs should be born by the 
>management budget - so do we have a rule to ban 
>these across the WP costs? If we do this in WP1 
>, it should be likewise elsewhere. Where people 
>need resources to pay salaries , this should 
>take preference.
>Also we have insufficient funds for holding 
>"workshops" - so a random approach to these must 
>also be avoided . Can the database WP pay for 
>these? We need at least 1 per task , and at 
>least 1 large one across tasks in WP1 . We have 
>no money for radiocarbon dates as far as I can 
>see - so where will these come from. We are 
>reducing the budget as you instructed , but this 
>must be helped by answers to the questions 
>above. Thanks
>Keith
>
>--
>Professor Keith Briffa,
>Climatic Research Unit
>University of East Anglia
>Norwich, NR4 7TJ, U.K.
>
>Phone: +44-1603-593909
>Fax: +44-1603-507784
>
>http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/briffa/


-- 
______________________________________________________________
Eystein Jansen
Professor/Director
Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and
Dep. of Earth Science, Univ. of Bergen
Allgaten 55
N-5007 Bergen
NORWAY
e-mail: eystein.jansen@geo.uib.no  
Phone:	+47-55-583491  -  Home: +47-55-910661
Fax: 	+47-55-584330
-----------------------
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More info at: www.bjerknes.uib.no/mcts
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