1. Coordinate project and set up evitherm as a business
Evitherm Mid-Term Review Meeting
7 September 2004
Progress in WP1
Coordinate project and set up evitherm as a business
presented by
Robert Angus
National Physical Laboratory

2. Objectives
Coordinate and manage a project to create a Virtual Institute (evitherm) serving the thermal technology needs of European industry
Establish a self-financing evitherm legal entity (ELE) to ensure continued delivery of the thermal knowledge and expertise provided by the evitherm website to industry and other beneficiaries once the project is completed

3. Project membership status
Project started in January 2003 with 34 members (Original contract set up for only 15 members at EC request. Contract revised June 2003 to include remaining 19 members – with their membership effective from January 2003)
2 members resigned in December 2003 (TNO and AP)
8 new industry members joined the project in January 2004 (Assotec, SciTe, Nestec, Daimler Chrysler, EADS, Testo, Hot Disk, AIPT)

4. Project management and communication activities
Project steering group (SG) set up comprising WP leaders and selected industry representatives (Assotec and SciTe). Five SG meetings held
Principal Contractor (CR) and Project management agreements set up to elaborate specific arrangements between CRs and the SG respectively, supplementing the rights and obligations of the EC contract
20 meetings of members of WPs 2 – 9 held to review and agree action plans

5. Budget status (at end of Year 1)
Total expenditure in year 1 is approximately 24% of total budget. This breaks down into:
Labour 38% of total budget spent
Travel 25% of total budget spent
Subcontract 1% of total budget spent *
Other project costs 3% of total budget spent **
* less than plan – website subcontract awarded in 2004
** less than plan – new members appointed in 2004

6. Original targets for ELE Revised targets for ELE at Month 12
Develop business and contractual relationships between the 5 PCs, to provide ongoing support to the ELE beyond the project
Launch ELE and evitherm website by January 2004
Revised targets for ELE at Month 12
Get agreement with as many of the 40 project participants as possible (target 75% or more) to show ongoing commitment to the ELE by signing up as ELE guarantors
Launch ELE and pay for access website by end of December 2004
The ELE to become a Principal Contractor of the EU project

7. The evitherm Society (ELE)
“ The objective of the Society is to facilitate the rapid flow of thermal knowledge between providers and users of thermal technologies in industry, research and teaching institutions and government bodies for the benefit of industrial processes and the environment. ”

8. Requirements of the ELE
Constitution, Memorandum & Articles of Association (MOA, AOA)
Business plan
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Agreements

9. ELE – Structure
Incorporates a General Assembly (GA), comprising all ELE Members, a managing committee and appropriate sub-committees, selected from the GA as necessary to steer the activities of the Society
The GA has the power to approve all the basic decisions taken by the Society and amongst other things to elect managing committee members and new ‘ELE Members’
The managing committee is responsible for delivering the activities assigned to it by the GA and for reporting on the business activities and financial situation of the Society

10. Duties and Liabilities of ELE – Members
Agree to support aims & objectives of the Society
Abide by the Constitution
Accept specified IPR obligations
Accept legal liability
Agree to pay specified annual membership fee

11. Proposed initial annual membership fees for ELE-Members
Organisation Size (No of employees)
European Union Definition
Annual subscription fees (€)
Individuals and less than 10
Micro
100
10 to 49
Small
250
50 to 249
Medium
500
250 or more
Large
1000
Reduced membership fees may be accepted from Universities and other non-profit organisations

12. Sign up of ELE – Members, Current Status
40 organisations in evitherm project asked the question ‘….will your organisation sign up as an ELE-Member …subject to seeing/agreeing all other ELE documents?’
To date replies are as follows:
25 said YES (62.5%)
2 said tentative YES – needs higher approval
3 said need more time to consider
1 said NO
Still waiting for replies from 9 other organisations

13. Business Plan (Version 2.8.3)
Income Source
Year (Income €)
2005
2006
2007
ELE-Members annual fees
15000
Users (= paying subscribers) of pay-site databases
1000
2500
3750
User organisations <10 employees Number(income)
25 (2500)
60 (6000)
100 (10000)
User organisations employees Number(income)
11 (2750)
30 (7500)
50 (12500)
User organisations employees Number(income)
12 (6000)
25 (12500)
45 (22500)
User organisations >250 employees Number(income)
19 (19000)
27 (27000)
35 (35000)
Total Number of Users (Total User Income)
67 (30250)
142 (53000)
230 (80000)
Sponsorship/advertising income
6600
25000
37500
Income from Links
5000
10000
12500
Conferences/Training/Publications etc
% Income from website Users
52%
46%
49%
% Income from ELE-Members
26%
13% 9%
Total Income (€)
58750
115500
163750

14. Key features of income plan
ELE-Member income assumes about 75% sign-up of project participants
User income value & distribution vs. organisation size assumes 30% of all known ‘interested organisations’ pay subscription fee in 2005
Work going on to investigate additional sources of income, such as consultancy services provided by ELE-Members, and to review user subscription fees and income distribution vs. organisation size

15. Business Plan (Version 2.8.3)
Expenditure Source
Year (Cost (€)
2005
2006
2007
Personnel to manage and run the ELE
25000
50000
75000
Accommodation (Office rent) and IT equipment
11000
15000
Technical sub-contracts to develop website
6000
16000
Legal and accountancy costs
2000
2700
3250
Promotion
4000
5500
Travel
5000
7500
Insurance
2200
Set up sponsorship/advertising
Sub-contract web authorship/site maintenance
9000
Web hosting
10000
Cost of events, training and publications
8000
Cost of paysite database access
1000
2500
3750
Miscellaneous costs
3000
8500
Total Costs (€)
58000
115200
163700

16. Key features of expenditure plan
Expenditure basically matches income (the ELE is a non-profit organisation) and any ‘surplus’ is reinvested to provide for technical sub-contracts to develop website
The biggest expenditure item is for personnel to manage and run the ELE – (approximately 43% of total costs)
Work going on to investigate ways of reducing expenditure (without jeopardising the operation and growth of the ELE) – in particular the personnel and other fixed costs associated with managing/running the ELE

17. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Agreements
A Project IPR agreement, affecting all project participants, on the ownership, protection and dissemination of knowledge generated under the project prior to and after the ELE is set up, has been agreed (see Annex 5, Mid-Term Report). Essentially this specifies that all such knowledge will be transferred free of charge to the ELE for any use including commercial use
A first draft IPR agreement for the ELE has been produced for review covering the issues related to IPR:
concerning activities funded by the Society
owned by Members and licensed to the Society
owned by Third Parties
attached to the use of the Society website and services

18. End of presentation – thank you!

19. UK Company Limited by Guarantee
In general this form of Company can be formed in a number of ways. It is an extremely flexible format and it can be formed like a trust or a charity where it may declare that it is a non-profit making organisation
Share holders (guarantors) are referred to as Members.Their share is £1 and this is the total of their liability to the business should it cease to trade and creditors need paying
The Company has to send copies of it's audited accounts to Companies House annually

20. MOA, AOA and Constitution
MOA is legal document that determines the name of the Society, where registered and its objectives
AOA is legal document that sets the rules for the Society’s internal affairs
Constitution is document detailing and specifying the rules in the AOA to make them operational and specific. It is designed to achieve democratic representation for all ‘ELE Members’ whilst ensuring minimal bureaucracy and maximum speed in decision-making processes

21. General Assembly - Duties
To elect and terminate the appointment of Managing Committee members and Officers of the Society and to formally approve the appointment of new members and to ratify the termination of members
To approve the strategical lines of all Society activities and to agree with the Managing Committee and the Officers the actions to be taken to implement the strategies
To approve all the basic decisions to be taken by the Society
To receive committee, sub-committee and working group reports and approve them annually

22. Benefits of ELE – Membership
Influence strategic decisions and operational/technical activities of the Society via the GA or as a member of the managing committee or technical sub-committees
Full user access rights to the evitherm website
Display of member organisation logo and web link