1. Third Annual Meeting 3Second Annual Report - breach of contract Deadline for the delivery:15/12/06 Sent to Brussels:14/12/06, but incomplete! This is a breach of contract!

2. Third Annual Meeting 3Second Annual Report - breach of contract Submission of documents to Commission

3. Third Annual Meeting 3Second Annual Report - breach of contract Submission of documents to Commission Scientific part Same as last year - wrong / incomplete / no information Financial part 15 partners delivered financial forms in time Last partner sent form 22/02/07 (>2 months after deadline). Comment from the Commission 16/04/07 “a delay of milestones is not acceptable without significant efforts to overcome the problem…”

4. Third Annual Meeting 3Second Annual Report - breach of contract Response to feedback from Commission Scientific part: a few questions, answered 26/04/07 Financial part: Responses to questions / requests from the Commission must be answered with high priority. (see last year’s report) Urgent emails sent to 13 partners 24/04/07. After 5 weeks, answers from four partners were still pending. Answer sent to Commission 05/06/07 without CYARI, NBGB, Pisa Botanic Garden.

5. Third Annual Meeting 3Second Annual Report - breach of contract Response to Commission

6. Third Annual Meeting 3Second Annual Report - breach of contract Submission of documents / response to Commission

7. Third Annual Meeting 3Second Annual Report - breach of contract 5 “champions” and 7 “black sheep” The next payment is still blocked FOLLOW OUR INSTRUCTIONS! IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEM - please, please, please A S K U S !

8. Third Annual Meeting 4Audit certificates 12 partners delivered audits on time and ‘correct’ 3 partners delivered audits on time but wrong 1 partner delivered an audit late but ‘correct’ 1 partner delivered an audit late and wrong 2 partners had not delivered an audit by the end of 2006 Submission of audit certificates to Commission Response to Commission 3 partners sent corrections 4 weeks late 1 partner sent correction >4 weeks late 3 partners were too late for inclusion with response

9. Third Annual Meeting 4Audit certificates Most common mistakes: - using wrong text templates / using text template without deleting irrelevant text - inclusion of VAT - selecting the wrong cost model - costs claimed in 3 documents do not correspond - confusion between EU financial contribution and receipts - 3 reporting periods, not 2. Here again: FOLLOW OUR INSTRUCTIONS!

10. Third Annual Meeting 5Procedural problems Open communication among network members is the key for a successful project Every partner is important, and everyone is legally obliged to ensure that the project is carried out in accordance with the contract. There is no excuse for not contributing to the project.

11. Third Annual Meeting 5Example of procedural problems

12. Third Annual Meeting 5Procedural problems Insufficient response rates + on-going inactivity “Urgent” emails are really urgent If too busy - send message with a definite response date Non-responding partners will be named within in the second reminder If out of office for some time - let us know or ask a colleague to respond on your behalf.

13. Third Annual Meeting 6Budget cuts and traffic light system Jean-Emmanuel Faure (project desk officer in Commission): “if the current inactivity continues, and tasks and milestones continue to be missed, there will be budget cuts and potentially other penalties by the Commission, as they are defined in the contract.” “no contribution to the project – no Commission funds”.

14. Third Annual Meeting 6Budget cuts and traffic light system

15. Third Annual Meeting 6Budget cuts and traffic light system

16. Third Annual Meeting 6Budget cuts and traffic light system

17. Third Annual Meeting 6Budget cuts and traffic light system

18. Third Annual Meeting 7Finance Financial overview (money allocation and spending, budget) SPEND YOUR BUDGET! The budget is flexible, as long as your activity contributes to the objectives of the project. For example: - hire extra staff - move money from one activity group to another group.

19. Third Annual Meeting 7Finance Next advance 434,879.42 Euros (based on figures in audit certificates = spending in Year 1 and Year 2) Introduction of new distribution system - see example

20. Third Annual Meeting 8ENSCONET II – application for a second project phase Deadline call RI 15/02/08

21. Third Annual Meeting 11Associate members Associate memberships established with Vienna, Geneva and Luxembourg. “Sleeping” interests from RIBES, REDBAG and the two French networks.

22. Third Annual Meeting 12Conferences and meetings attended / to attend When?What?Where?Who?Presentation 16-20 April 2007 3rd Global Botanic Gardens Congress Wuhan (PR China) Jonas Müller David Aplin ENSCONET and Target 8 4-6 June 2007 IX Simpósio da associação ibero- macaronésica de jardins botânicos Coimbra (Portugal) 5-6 June 2007 4th European Conference on Research Infrastructures Hamburg (Germany) 3-7 July 2007EastCentGard II Warsaw/Rogow (Poland) Jerzy Puchalski Jonas Müller Vince Zigmond Maite Delmas ENSCONET Talk and Poster 5-9 Sept 20075th Planta Europa Conference Cluj-Napoca (Romania) Costa Bonomi Jerzy Puchalski ENSCONET 9-13 Sept 2007 2nd International Society for Seed Science Meeting on Seeds and the Environment Perth (Australia) Costas ThanosENSCONET Poster 10-17 Sept 2007 12th OPTIMA meetingPisa (Italy) Karol Marhold Jaromir Kucera ENSCONET Poster

23. Third Annual Meeting 14Dates of next meetings 7th Management Team Meeting: Cordoba,16-18/01/08, including a Mid-term review by the Commission 4th general meeting Gran Canaria: Dates to be confirmed