Extending ICT Research Co-operation between the European Union, Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus EECA FP7 Help-Desk EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Dr.Tatyana Lyadnova, ICT NCP Belarusian Institute of System Analysis and Information Support of Scientific and Technical Sphere (BELISA)

2EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Content  1. HD objective  2. HD current status  3. HD Functions  4. Submit a question  5. FAQ  6. Glossary  7. Phone questions  8. Next steps  9. Questions

3EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Help-Desk (HD) objective  HD is intended to assist ICT research actors from the EECA countries, including project partners’ countries and cluster projects’ countries: - to become familiar with the procedures and opportunities for co-operation in the ICT programme –to acquire know-how on identified areas suitable for the future EU-EECA cooperation

4EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Help Desk current status  HD service was launched in July 2009  It will remain operational until the end of the project  Provision of HD services – responsibility of the EECA partners/ per country  HD services are offered through EXTEND website

5EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Help Desk clearly marked on the project home page,

6EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Help Desk Introduction

7EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Help Desk Functions

8EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Submit a Question  Question may be submitted in any language but the answer would be given only in English  User has the option to attach files together with submitting his question. Such a file could be a document enclosing a more elaborated description of the proposal idea.  A respond time is maximum 2 working days from the first question / call

9EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 HD offered services  The following activities are offered under “Submit a question”: –Proposal Preparation Support –Idea Evaluation –Making it understandable –Coaching

10EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Proposal Preparation Support  The user can get an assistance regarding the proposal preparation in general: –the initial understanding what it is, –where to find the information on the open calls, –how to use it, –in which way to proceed, based on the very initial draft proposal, –what aspects are important for the proposal preparation, –where and how to find partners, –etc.

11EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Idea evaluation  The User can have a preliminary basic evaluation of his proposal idea: –checking whether it is compatible with the ICT FP7 priorities and if it’s worth pursuing, and of it fits the open Call Challenges/ Objectives. –The User should not expect to have an evaluation from the point of view of the state-of-the-art and novelty.

12EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Making it understandable  Help desk will try –to “translate” the objectives of the Calls into a more understandable language (i.e. explain what the EC wants/means under a certain objective) –to map the organisation’s skills to a number of possible objectives in the call

13EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Coaching  The Help desk will try to coach the proposer to approach the Commission: –the right person –to ask right questions so that the proposer can assess the idea weaknesses and strengths –to give the name and address, telephone number (if necessary) of the EC person dealing with the issue –to explain/discuss what he/she needs to get back from the EC during the conversation

14EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 User submits a question

15EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 User chooses the country

16EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Choose the question subject It is important to have the questions grouped. The user can choose the one what fits best.

17EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 The User gets acknowledge

18EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 The FP7 Country Specialist answer form

19EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Answer by Country Specialist

20EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Answer by Country Specialist

21EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 The Help-Desk Process

22EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 FP7 FAQs

23EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 The Glossary

24EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Users’ Feedback

25EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 FP7 Country Specialists

26EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Phone questions  A user can (although not recommended) to submit a question by telephone  In this case, the FP7 CS has to fill in a special Form (similar to user submission form) for reporting on the phone consultation via the web “Add phone question”  The situation is then handled manually * Improves our services, gives accountability and credibility, etc.

27EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Help-Desk’s alert mechanism  If the question is not read by the FP7 Country Specialist within 24 hours, a Warning is automatically sent to the Help-Desk Manager  The second Warning*36 - after 36 hours  If the answer is not yet sent, HD Manager now takes action to make sure the question is being answered and solved within the deadline

28EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Quality control A Quality control system is set up and will be carried out through:  Ad hoc regular revision of responses sent to the Users  Evaluation of the User/organization Feedback questionnaire  The HD Manager together with the Quality Control team* will be carrying out the Quality control of the responses provided by all FP7 CS  The HD Manager together with the Quality Control team will analyse also the Feedback questionnaires, received from the Users * The Quality Team includes the project coordinator and 2-3 FP7 Country Specialists on rotation basis.

29EXTEND Training Workshop Baku, 23 April 2010 Status of the system, next steps  All needed functionalities are presented and working  Improvements could be done upon the users’ needs  HD remains operational until the end of the project and the partners are interested to keep it active after the project completion.  PLEASE!!! Use this support actively!

Extending ICT Research Co-operation between the European Union, Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus Thank you… Any questions? :-)