The implementation of the Action will be supervised and coordinated by a Management Committee (MC). This MC will be established following the “Rules and Procedures for implementing COST Actions” and it will be responsible for planning, execution and delivery of this Action. The MC will appoint from the start a Chair, Vice-Chair, and coordinators for WGs and TFs.
Due to the great importance of STSMs for this Action, and the intention to have two calls per year, a Coordinator for STSMs will be appointed. This coordinator will monitor and supervise the STSMs to be carried out under this Action. WGs and TFs should contribute with topics for potential STSMs that the STSM coordinator is going to handle, so that the calls for STSMs will be in line with the work programme of the action.
A Dissemination coordinator will also be appointed to ensure this important task is accomplished in good time.
The MC will also appoint a Steering Committee (SC) consisting of the Chair, Vice-Chair, WGs and TFs Coordinators. The Action will make efforts to achieve a good balance of gender, geography and ESRs in the SC.
It will be asked to the Action members who will be appointed MC members to be responsible for the NWFPs network regarding their country. They shall coordinate the participation of active WGs members of their country, as much as the Action budget will allow it.
It will be discussed on the Action MC first meeting the eventual establishment of an advisory committee who would work as a liaison with the institutions involved in other NWFPs programmes/projects and in particular with the STARTREE Project of the FP7 call KBBE.2012.1.2-06.
This Action will work towards a series of milestones, identified in the Action timetable, to closely progress the major achievements that are crucial to the future direction of the Action, they are the following:
Milestone 1: Establishment of Action’s organization structure (MS1)
In the inception meeting the MC should appoint Action participants to implement the Action’s organization structure. Therefore, by the close of this meeting there should be a Chair, Vice-Chair, WG and TF coordinators, STSM coordinator, Dissemination coordinator and SC.
Milestone 2: Evaluation of available information adjustment of scientific programme if necessary (MS2)
The second Action meeting should comprise of an SC meeting, an MC meeting and WG and TF meetings. During these WG meetings there should be detailed presentations and discussion about the published information available on European NWFP by research area. Such information should have been collected between the first and second meetings. If this information lead to the need on adjusting the scientific programme this will be undertaken. The analysis of the collected information will be also useful to guide further information collection.
Milestone 3: Integration of information and reviewing work (MS3)
The third Action meeting will comprise an SC meeting, an MC meeting and WG and TF meetings. During these meetings the on-going work on integration of NWFPs information and reviewing will be presented and reviewed.
Milestone 4: Draft of review articles, databases and guidelines (MS4)
The fourth Action meeting should comprise of a SC, a MC and WG meetings. During these meetings a beta version from the NWFP and stakeholders databases and a draft of review papers and management guidelines will be presented and discussed.
Milestone 5: Final report, review articles, databases and book (MS5)
The final Action meeting should focus on disseminating the results produced during the Action. Equally, an emphasis should be given to the identified knowledge gaps and relevant future research topics on European NWFPs. It will be an International Conference where major European NWFP stakeholders will be invited to ensure a good knowledge transfer for the Action end-users. Review articles, databases and the book should be ready.
