Sofia, September 2-3, 2004

Scope

The intention of the kick-off meeting is to:

•  Allow the partners to get acquainted;
•  Review the current status of the project;
•  Review the general guidelines for administrative and financial issues, proceedings and reporting;
•  Start mutual discussion on all issues of the project in the presence of all;
•  All participants to agree on the next steps that are needed so that this project can be successfully fulfilled.

List of Participants

European Commission (EC) Representative:

Dr. Marko Brusati

Partners:

Dr. Tsvetan Dachev , Coordinator, Solar Terrestrial Investigation Laboratory, Bulgarian Academy of Science (STIL-BAS), Bulgaria

Dr. Malina Jordanova , START Manager, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

Mr. Hillar Toomiste , Partner, Archimedes Foundation (Archimedes), Tallin, Estonia

Dr. Thilo Schonfeld, Partner, Centre National de Recherche Technologique Aeronautics & Space (CNRT-AE), Toulouse, France

Ms . Gundega Jakobsone instead of Dr . Sandra Vasilevska, Partner , Representing Riga Technical University (RTU), Riga, Latvia

Dr . Birute Mikulskiene , Partner , Agency for International Science and Technology Development Programmes (AISTDP), Vilnius, Lithuania

Dr. Ing. Carl Debono , Partner, Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST), Bighi, Malta

Mr. Zbigniew Turek , Partner, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (IFTR), Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

Dr. Anca Liana Racheru , Partner, Romanian Space Agency (ROSA), Bucharest, Romania

Ms. Sebnem Dogan , Partner, EU 6-th Framework Program National Coordination Office, Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), Ankara, Turkey

Mr. Borislav Tomov , web administrator, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

Mr. Yurii Matviichuk , responsible for the database, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

Note: Dr. Ing. David Zammit-Mangion, Partner, University of Malta (UM), Malta will not participate at this meeting. Dr. Ing. Carl Debono will present both partners from Malta.

 

Agenda

September 2 nd , 2004

Time	Item	Responsibility
10:00 – 10:15	Welcome, introduction, history of the project Welcome and introduction Approval of the agenda Brief review of the history of the proposal to the contract	Project Coordinator Dr. Tsvetan Dachev
10:15 – 10:20	Welcome address	Prof. Dr. Sabotinov Vice –president of BAS
10:20 – 10:35	Presentation by EU Officer	Dr. Marco Brusati
10:35 – 10:55	Partners' presentations Partner 1 - STIL-BAS, Bulgaria	Dr. Tsvetan Dachev
10:55 – 11:15	Partners' presentations Partner 2 - Archimedes, Estonia	Mr. Hillar Toomiste
11:15 – 11:35	Partners' presentations Partner 3 - CNRT-AE, France	Dr. Thilo Schonfeld
11:35 – 11:55	Partners' presentations Partner 4 - RTU, Latvia	Ms. Gundega Jakobsone
11:55 – 1 2:15	Partners' presentations Partner 5 - AISTDP, Lithuania	Dr. Birute Mikulskiene
12:30 - 12:35 13:00 – 14:00 14:05 – 14:20 14:20 – 15:00	Break and Press-conference Leaving for the press-conference Press-conference Back to the hotel Break
15:00 – 15:20	Partners' presentations Partner 6 - UM, Malta	Dr. Ing. Carl Debono
15:20 – 15:40	Partners' presentations Partner 7 - MCST, Malta	Dr. Ing. Carl Debono
15:40 – 16:00	Partners' presentations Partner 8 - IFTR, Poland	Mr. Zbigniew Turek
16:00 – 16:20	Partners' presentations Partner 9 - ROSA, Romania	Dr. Anca Liana Racheru
16:20 – 16:40	Partners' presentations Partner 10 - TUBITAK, Turkey	Ms. Sebnem Dogan
16:40 – 17:00	Discussion	Chair: Dr. BiruteMikulskiene
17:00 – 17:20	Coffee Break
17:20 – 17:30	Current status of the project Brief presentation of START project	Project Coordinator Dr. Tsvetan Dachev
17:30 – 17:50	START web site: presentation & life demonstration	Mr. Borislav Tomov web administrator
17:50 – 18:10	Presentation of “Quality Management Handbook”	Dr. Thilo Schonfeld
18:10 – 18:40	Mapping of the aerospace area (WP 1) Subcontracting – strategies Round table discussion	Chair: Dr. Anca Liana Racheru
19:30 – 21:30	Group Dinner at the Hotel Europe Restaurant

September 3 rd , 2004

Time	Item	Responsibility
9:30 – 9:35	Current status of START project (part II) Introductory remarks	Dr. Tsvetan Dachev
9:35 – 10:00	Building and operation of the ACC Aeronautics and Space data base as a part of project portal (WP 2)	Dr. Tsvetan Dachev, Mr. Borislav Tomov, Mr. Yurii Matviichuk
10:00 – 10:25	Creating, Publishing and distribution of electronic Newsletter (WP 3) Newsletter template/s -demonstration	Ms. Sebnem Dogan
10:25 – 10:45	Discussion	Chair: Mr. Hillar Toomiste
10:45 – 11:05	Coffee Break
11:05 – 11:25	Brokerage event organisation (WP 4)	Dr. Ing. Carl Debono
11:25 – 11:45	Reviewing the administration of the project / Consortium management (WP 5)	START Manager Dr. Malina Jordanova
11:45 – 12:00	Discussion	Chair: Dr. Tsvetan Dachev
12:00 – 12:20	Consortium Agreement – presenting and signing	Dr. Tsvetan Dachev
12:20 – 12:35	Concluding remarks, discussion and agreement on the actions to be done till the next meeting	Chair: Dr. Ing. Carl Debono
12:35	End of the meeting
12:35 – 15:30	Break
15:30 – 17:30	Sofia round trip Meeting – in front of the hotel

 

Galery of Kick-off Meeting

 

 

 

Minutes of Kick-off-Meeting

September 2-3, 2004, Sofia, Bulgaria

Location

Hotel Europe, Sofia, September 2-3, 2004

Welcoming words and opening

Dr. Tsvetan Dachev , project coordinator, opened the meeting at 10.00 am, September 2 nd , 2004, with welcoming words. He expressed his gratefulness for participant's efforts to get the necessary time to attend the meeting. Apologies for absence were presented on behalf of Dr. Ing. David Zammit-Mangion , partner, University of Malta (UM). He had authorized Dr. Ing. Carl Debono, the other Maltese partner, to present him and UM.

After introducing the persons attending the meeting, the coordinator described:

The preliminary proposed agenda was approved and all participants agreed to start with short review of the history and the present status of the project delivered by project coordinator.

Immediately after that, Dr. Marco Brusati , EC representative and supervisor of the project, made two presentations:

After that all partners, one after the other, in alphabetical order, presented themselves briefly and described the aerospace and related expertise of their organizations as follows:

•  Dr. T. Dachev, STIL-BAS – “Acad. D. Mishev” Space Research Activities - Past, Present and Future;

•  Mr. Hillar Toomiste, Your Partners for Continuing Advice;

•  Dr. Thilo Schonfeld, Presentation of Partner CNRT-AE;

•  Ms. Gundega Jakobsone , Riga Technical University.

At 12:30 the meeting was interrupted for a press-conference and lunch break.

The press conference too place in Sofia press from 13:00 till 14:30. After short presentations of START project and its goals as well as presentation of EC policy in Priority 4 “Aeronautics and Space” representatives of newspapers and TV media have the possibility to ask questions to START project partners. Media interest turned upon Dr. Marco Brusati, EC representative, Mr. Zbigniew Turek (Polish partner) and Mr. Tamer Ozalp (Turkish representative). Due to the enormous interest, the press conference exceeded the preliminary fix time with 30 minutes. In the central evening news reportage about START project was presented.

The afternoon the meeting on September 2 nd proceeded with subsequent presentations:

•  Dr. Birute Mikulskiene , Agency for International Science and Technology Development Programmes in Lithuania;

•  Dr. Ing. Carl Debono made two presentations – (a) The University of Malta and (b) Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST);

•  Mr. Zbigniew Turek , National Contact Point for Research Programmes of the European Union;

•  Dr. Anca Liana Racheru, Romanian Space Agency;

•  Mr. Tamer Ozalp, TUBITAK - The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey.

After a coffee break the meeting continued with:

•  Short presentation updating partners on the project by Dr. T. Dachev and

•  Presentation and life demonstration of START web site. Mr. Borislav Tomov, web administrator, demonstrated building and operation of the ACC Aeronautics and Space data base, which corresponds to WP 2 of project portal.

•  The last point for the day was an open discussion concerning some specific issues, such as the mapping procedures, so essential in creation of projects database; securing of the data entry, database search. The use of creating password protected part of the web only for project partner was also considered. The conclusion was that for the moment this is not necessary as the e-mail flow satisfies the needs of exchanging information. .

The day ended with a group dinner.

The second day of the meeting, September 3 rd , started with presentation of Ms. Sebnem Dogan. She listed various templates for the START project Newsletter, designed by Turkish partner thus giving opportunity for the partners to discus the templates and choose the best one with consensus. Potential practical problems connected with Newsletter distribution were also discussed.

The meeting proceeded with presentations by:

•  Dr. Thilo Schonfeld , START project quality manager, who presented a preliminary draft of Project Quality management handbook. Although all partners had received in advance a copy of this handbook, time was given to all to continue studying the document and to submit their suggestions, if any, till the end of September 2004. Partners had agreed that if there are no significant changes till the end of September, the Handbook will be considered as accepted and all partners will follow it in the process of preparation of project's document.

•  Dr. Ing. Carl Debono , present in brief the future brokerage event organization. During the discussion partners came to the conclusion that from practical point of view (potential participation in next Aeronautics and space call, which will be closed in Spring 2005), it will be better to switch the order to brokerage events in Malta and France. Thus the next meeting has to take place in France, Toulouse instead of Malta. This tactic, hopefully, will give partners chance to meet representatives of Frenche aerospace industry and participate in more project proposals.

•  In addition START manager, Dr. Malina Jordanova, made an administrative presentation. Topics covered were management, communication and sub-contracting, reporting as well as short review of project's activities till beginning of September 2004.

•  Last item was Consortium agreement. Despite of the fact that it was distributed in advance to all partners, some of them had missed to send in advance their remarks and comments. After a short discussion, it was agreed that additional 25 days will be given to all partners to check once again the text of the consortium agreement and if necessary to send comments to project manager. After corrections, if any, consortium agreement will be signed.

The day ended with round trip of Sofia.

Conclusions and Action Points

In sum:

One opened issue remained – signing the consortium agreement;

As a conclusion of the kick-off meeting the following was mutually agreed upon, by all participants, as next steps to drive START forward:

1. The Consortium agreement will be signed after some corrections.

2. Next brokerage event and consortium meeting will take place in France, not in Malta. January 20-21, 2005 was agreed as the best time for all partners. The first day, January 20 th , will be an open for public brokerage event, while the second day, January 21 st , will be a closed consortium meeting. For the brokerage event all partners have to provide maximum 10-minute presentations on their country's expertise in aerospace area. The goal will be a foreseen participation in next call of FP6 on aeronautics and space together with French partners.

3. Partners will strictly follow the templates of the Quality management handbook in preparation of documents.

4. Every 6 th month partners will send brief activity and financial reports to project manager. These internal reports will be of significant help in following the progress of the project as well as in the preparation of annual reports.