The organisational structure of the project is depicted in the diagram below.
Communication within the project will to a considerable extend be carried out by e-mail. Project work meeting will be organised for targeted groups of scientist on an ad hoc basis, whenever possible in combination with the biannual Steering Committee meetings.
The main challenge relating to project management is the large number of participants. This is the result of the competencies needed to carry out the project: a number of project partners (i.e. the old GESTCO partners) have accumulated considerable know-how on the subjects in question, while the new partners in the East and South have extensive knowledge of national geology and other factors. The organisational structure designed for the project addresses this need for streamlining work and communication. Additionally, Work Package 2 (GeoCapacities of aquifers) have intentionally been subdivided into three activities, enabling the definition of three distinct geographical groups within which the partners will be expected cooperate closely. Reference is made to B.6.4 Work Package Interdependencies and to Figure 4: Geographical coverage of the project.
An End-User Advisory Group comprising the potential end-users involved in the project will be organised. This Advisory Group will meet with the project management at least 3 times, in addition to involvement in specific work packages. It is the intention to expand the End-User Group with 3 5 additional industry representatives if possible, involving a wider group of potential uptake companies. These companies will be asked to pay a small fee in order to gain access to the project activity and information.
As project result will be made publicly available, no legal constraints are envisaged. An exception to this would be such basic data which in many countries is not generally available (e.g. German petroleum data). The participating partners are well experienced in handling this kind of limitation and it is not foreseen to constitute a major obstacle.
Contributions to standards (WP 4) on capacity assessment and site selection criteria are meaningless unless published - and will consequently be published to greatest extend possible.
It is anticipated that considerable interest will be shown for the GIS database and it is the intention on an ad-hoc basis to provide copies of this information to interested parties, e.g. working on the future development of Europes energy and industry sectors. While the results of economic evaluations resulting from the project will be published as widely as feasible, the dissemination of the software (DSS) will be the property of the project parties and the EU. Distribution to external parties will thus be on an ad-hoc basis.
Project risks and conflicts
The risk factors associated with the execution of this project take two, very different forms:
1: Too many partners
It is recognised that it would have been preferable to execute the project with few partners, but this is not feasible. A structure has therefore been chosen in which the most important component WP 2 Aquifer GeoCapacities will be divided into three groups, thus facilitating the mamagement of the work flow. Also several of the partners are very experienced in structuring project work and can be expected to contribute this experience to the project.
2: Data accessibility, quality and work required to bring this on a useful form.
Experience from past work particularly the GESTCO project clearly has shown that the accessing (sometime buying) of necessary data and translating it into relevant formats, followed by interpretation useful to the project. Is time consuming and difficult process, often of an iterative nature. Add to this the complexity of old Soviet-type data formats. There is no standard solution to this problem, other than proper planning and the ability to stay flexible within the project organisation. Specific agreements will be necessary regarding access to data (emissions, plants, geology etc) and the use and publication of such data.
Conflict resolution
Major conflicts among the partners are unlikely, but cannot be ruled out. If a conflict cannot be resolved by the project manager, it will be attempted to solve the problem through involvement of other project partners. As a final measure, conflict may be brought before the Steering Committee, who will work out procedures for conflict mitigation.
