A dedicated project manager, Clare Desplats, was recruited at the start of the project. Clare has extensive experience managing MSCA projects and provides guidance and support to the consortium.
ICEBIO beneficiaries hold regular management meetings online and at network-wide training events. Minutes from management meetings will be posted here.
The first ICEBIO Management Meeting was held in Potsdam, Germany on October 12, 2022. Representatives from all host institutions attended the event.
During this meeting, the project manager presented information about:
- The ICEBIO recruitment strategy
- Financial management of the project
- Network events
- Deliverables and milestones and how to manage them
- Secondments
- Project boards (Executive committee, Supervisory board, Research committee, and Outreach and Dissemination committee.
- Dissemination and outreach
She also answered questions from the PI group.
This section of the meeting was followed by a discussion of the fieldwork strategy for the network.
The second ICEBIO management meeting was held during the kickoff meeting in Austria in September 2023. Ten doctoral students were present at the event, but two were unable to attend due to visa issues. All presentations given during the meeting were placed in a BOX folder so that those not present during the meeting were able to view them after the event.
On Thursday September 7th, the day began with general introductions from the PIs and project manager. This was followed by short introductory presentations from the newly recruited doctoral candidates. Those not present were represented by their PIs.
In the afternoon, the project manager gave a general presentation about the rights and obligations of Marie Curie fellows including information about personal career development plans, secondments, outreach activities, training opportunities and where to find information about the project.
The project manager also provided access to a BOX folder with information for all DCs including:
• A copy of the ICEBIO grant agreement.
• Information about how to acknowledge EU funding and a reminder that all peer reviewed publications must be open access plus a link to a high-resolution copy of the EU flag.
• The template for the first year PCDP: personal career development plan along with some guidelines for completing the document
• The list of ICEBIO deliverables and milestones due over the course of the project • The dates of the first four network wide training events • Some information about Outreach activities produced by the EC
• A template for completing semi-annual progress reports along with a spreadsheet indicating the due dates for each person’s report.
• The information required for the ICEBIO website to include all DCs the website.
• A copy of the ICEBIO logo
• An information note for Marie Curie fellows produced by the EC
• Some information about the SNLS allowance
• An ICEBIO Project Overview giving information about the budget, secondments, etc.
The project manager’s presentation was followed by a presentation by the coordinator providing a “big picture” view of the overarching goals of the ICEBIO project with an opportunity for questions from the DCs. This was followed by a discussion of a network wide fieldwork strategy and an action plan to cut down on carbon emissions. This included creating a shared fieldwork file so that team members could see where other teams were sampling to avail of opportunities to collect samples in multiple locations without requiring the whole team to travel. When possible, team members were encouraged to take train transportation rather than flights. The coordinator urged DCs to put forward ideas for future training not included in the original grant agreement.
On Sunday, September 10th, a second part of the management meeting revolved around a discussion of gender balance, risks of sexual harassment and how to combat them, and a more detailed discussion of an outreach strategy for the network. The importance of mutual respect and communication was highlighted, and the DCs were provided with several communication channels to address any concerns or issues when working on their research projects. This included local channels at their host institutions, support from their supervisors and fully confidential discussions with the project manager. The group suggested the creation of an outreach folder where various team members could indicate ideas for outreach activities and opportunities for collaboration. The project manager created a BOX folder with this information.
The management part of the meeting concluded on Sunday with a final day of field training for the DCs on Monday September 11th.
The third ICEBIO management meeting was held during the network event in Grenoble, France. All 12 doctoral candidates attended the meeting as well as a majority of PIs from the beneficiary institutions. This management meeting offered an opportunity to review several obligations described in the ICEBIO Grant Agreement.
Coordinator Alexandre Anesio began the meeting with a review of upcoming deliverables and milestones and the expected contributions from the various doctoral candidates and host institutions. He also encouraged the DCs to provide specific examples of any breakthroughs in their work in their semi-annual progress reports as this information will be useful in preparing the periodic report due to the European Commission in September 2024.
Next, Alex reminded the group about the importance of outreach and dissemination. This was followed by group reflections about possible outreach opportunities and a question about identification of predatory journals for publications. ICEBIO is expected to produce a white paper about the status of the glacier biome. The plan is to start work on this paper during the fourth network event in the autumn of 2024.
The meeting then moved to a discussion about fieldwork strategy and a reminder to all network participants to share information about where they are doing their fieldwork. The idea is that teams working in certain areas will be able to collect samples for other teams thereby cutting down on the need for travel for multiple people.
Doctoral candidates were encouraged to regularly review their research plans with their supervisors and to start thinking about their secondments which are scheduled to take place in year 2 of their research projects. Alex concluded this portion of the meeting by encouraging the DCs to reach out to their supervisors, peers, the coordinator or the project manager in the event of any problems or concerns during their fellowships.
After Alex’s presentation, DC Klara Köhler gave a short presentation to the group about the green charter developed by the DCs for the ICEBIO project. This included recommendations about travel options, sustainable field and lab work, use of sustainable hotels and restaurants during network events and efforts to reduce waste across all sectors. The charter was well received by the group and no objections were raised.
The fourth ICEBIO management meeting was held during the network event in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was attended by 10 of the 11 DCs and PIs from four of the beneficiary organisations. For those who could not attend, the slides and minutes were communicated to them after the event.
The following topics were addressed during the meeting:
- Future network events and what to do about the originally planned event associated with PAM. Currently, it looks like PAM may not take place, so Alex encouraged the group to think about other options for large conferences where ICEBIO could contribute to a session and make an impact. Conferences taking place over the summer are in conflict with fieldwork plans. One possibility is the EGU conference which will take place in Vienna in April of 2025.
- A reminder about the obligation to publish press releases in different languages. Many people in the group prefer not to use X, so a decision was made to create an ICEBIO linkedin account to release information about ICEBIO publications and other events.
- A discussion about the first periodic report due to the European Commission and a reminder about submitting financial statements for each institution. At the present time, the consortium training and management budgets are on track and local budgets are closely monitored at each institution.
- Upcoming project deliverables
- Secondments and a reminder to the DCs about this contractual obligation. DCs were encouraged to start planning their visits to their secondment host institutions. - Outreach and the need to use diverse channels to reach multiple audiences.
- Dissemination and communication and a reminder to systematically acknowledge EU funding and to make all peer-reviewed papers open access either through green or gold routes.
- The ICEBIO fieldwork strategy. Alex encouraged the group to make use of the shared fieldwork document to offer the possibility to collect samples for others in the network.
- What to do in the event of problems: who to talk to and a reminder to the doctoral candidates not to wait too long to bring up any concerns or issues as smaller problems are much easier to resolve than big ones.