Objectives

The objective of this WP is to deliver the proposal of the Statute of EIRENE-ERIC, its governance plan, the overall administrative and operation EIRENE structure mirroring the service architecture developed within WPX and Y and the first version of the financial and economic model of EIRENE ERIC. These documents will be co-created with the partners and based on continuous discussion with relevant stakeholders (e.g. national representations) and will be subject of the discussion and approval of the BGR. The meetings of the BGR shall be realized at least twice a year to ensure good progress.

Tasks (months 1-18)

T3.1 EIRENE ERIC Governance plan (Task leader: X-Officio, partners MU, all)
At the very start of the project, with the support of all EIRENE partners, the BGR will confirm the ERIC as preferred legal structure of EIRENE. The Governance model (Del 3.1, M12) will provide an overview of the EIRENE ERIC bodies and their role & responsibilities, which will be developed, discussed and approved by the BGR. This work will rely on best experience of other operating ERICs, expert advice as well as the recent practical guidelines from the EU Commission. The meetings of BGR will be supported and ensured by the project coordinator and will be realized at least twice a year. Each BGR meeting will be followed by meeting minutes and list of tasks. X-Officio will coordinate the task and together with the MU will propose the Governance model, which will be commented on by all partners based on their needs and expectations.

T3.2 EIRENE ERIC Statutes (Task leader: X-Officio, partners MU, all)
This task will focus on bringing the draft EIRENE ERIC Statutes (Del 3.2, M12) to the quality required for approval and to ensure they are fit for purpose. A mature draft will be prepared and presented to the BGR, whose delegates are expected to provide comments and propose amendments. Active involvement of ministries (BGR) is essential, as they are responsible for committing their countries to ERIC membership. Ministries ensure that governance, financial arrangements, and policy principles align with national legislation, priorities, and long-term research and innovation strategies. Their engagement secures political support, grants legitimacy to the Statutes, and facilitates alignment with both national and European policy frameworks. Several iterations with the BGR are therefore foreseen under this Task before a final version of the Statutes for EIRENE ERIC can be agreed. Based on the inputs and analysis of MU, X-Officio will develop the ERIC EIRENE Statute and will lead, together with the MU, the negotiations with the BGR. All partners will ensure the national perspective to be considered.

T3.3 EIRENE Implementation rules (Task leader: X-Officio, partners MU, all)
The task will aim to develop the set of implementing rules for EIRENE ERIC (Del 3.3, M18) in particular the Rules of Procedure for the General Assembly as well as the Rules of Procedure and/or Terms of Reference for the ERIC advisory bodies. In addition, the employment policy and procurement rules will be drafted. The design and implementation of these rules and documents will also be based on experience gathered from other ERICs and expert advice. X-Officio and MU will identify and develop set of basic implementation rules based on the local and European law and experiences of others and needs of EIRENE RI. Partners will comment the documents to consider national rules.

T3.4 EIRENE Monitoring system development (Task leader: X-Officio, partners MU, all)
Based on the needs of EIRENE (and its structure) and the experiences and major issues identified by existing ERICs and other RIs, the architecture of the monitoring system will be defined together with updated list of KPIs to be monitored. This will encompass the financial monitoring, monitoring of services provided and the overall performance of the EIRENE network. The outcome – Interim monitoring report (Del 3.4, M18) – will be presented to BGR and will be implemented within the WP4. X-Officio will propose the basic framework of monitoring system together with MU, which will ensure the communication of RI specifications and needs. Partners will consider national monitoring practices.

T3.5 Ensuring key managerial capacities (Task leader: X-Officio, partners MU, all)
We will identify the positions and profiles of staff necessary to implement the EIRENE IMP project and to contribute to the actual operation of EIRENE. The human resource plan will be revisited both centrally and at the local level. Based on this, key managerial positions will be staffed by internal or newly hired professionals with proper expertise and experience. To allow for effective implementation, the development plan of these professionals will be set. MU and X-Officio will review current capacities in cooperation with partners and will identify key staffing needs.

T3.6 Interim financial plan of EIRENE (Task leader: MU, partners all)
In first 18 months of the project, we will deliver two financial models. One model will focus on the expenses related to the administration of EIRENE-ERIC as the central hub. This model would allow for more scenarios (extent of centrally provided services, national contributions models and amounts, the scope of the EIRENE ERIC team etc.) and probabilities. The second one will focus on the distributed components of the EIRENE Research infrastructure and will present a financial model, including all the partners, their national and project contributions, the capacities offered etc. The model will focus on operations and service provision related costs. As in the first case, the plan will be modular and will be thoroughly discussed with partners and with the BGR. The Interim Financial Plan (Del 3.5, M18) will be ready to submit to the BGR at M18. MU will develop the financial model based on given EIRC structure; X-Officio will support it and provide feedback based on experiences of ither RIs, all partners will feed the data and principles of national funding.