Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Having a good time with EU

The 6th of February is the deadline for the corrections of the HANDS proposal and 13th of February do we(Chairman Peter Øhrstrøm, Administrator Henrik Sand and I) have the Grant Agreement Negotations in Bruxelles with our Project Officer Anne Salaun.

The Commision did not have ureasonable critics against the proposal. As a extra exercise, the Commission asks us to change the Proposal to a document called "Annex I"(an Annex to the Grant Agreement document.) This demand forces me to read a couple of EU documents:

  • Negotiation Guidance Notes(57 pages)
  • Grand Agreement Preparation Forms(34 pages)
  • Checklist for a Consortium Agreement for FP7 projects(17 pages)
  • Guide to Intellectual Property Rules for FP7 projects(45 pages)
  • User Guide for Coordinators and Participants(14 pages)
  • Note for attention of the Consortium(15 pages)
I do not find it fun any more. Physically and mentally do I need a change.

People around me are working very hard to. Miklos and his folks in Budapest, Joseph & Julia in London, Peter Øhrstrøm & Henrik Sand and all our consultants. I feel very well supported in this stage of the proces, I need to see the work. See the pupils, having meetings with HANDS partners and so on.

And I need to know for sure, that the Commission wants to sign a contract with us. I can image, that I loose conscious, when negotiation with Project Officer in Bruxelles.




Friday, January 11, 2008

An invitation to Grand Agreement in Bruxelles February 13nd!!

Chairman Peter mailed me last week: "Look at this, I believe, we have to talk together". Peter had received a invitation to Grand Agreement negotiations in Bruxelles!! It was just wild! After talking, dreaming, thinking and hoping for almost one year, HANDS finally was choosen! From now on, HANDS only fails, in case the consortium is behaving idiotic. But all partners still needs to do some work. Bruxelles has only suggested, that the budget cut should be 3%!

I recalled the lyrics from "Once in a lifetime" by Talking Heads

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful Wife

And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

Last week I wrote a document to myself entitled "20 good reasons, that HANDS should not be realised and now I am in the middle of .... a dream? Or an adventure? Or have EU selected the most demanding, exciting research within the area "ICT for social marginalised people?" With the most exciting perspectives? With parcipation of the wildest combination of exciting personalities and competences: cognitive psychology, mobile telephone developers, Persuasive Technology, ethics, e-learning designcompetences and autism pedagogics?

I only know, that I need to comprehend this new situation.
Somebody has to tell me, what has happend!


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