CIRCLE Bodies
The interaction of all relevant CIRCLE bodies
The Contractors Committee consists of one representative of each of the consortium members of CIRCLE. It takes top level decisions and appraise project progress. It decides on the involvement of new consortium members, on amendments of the project plan and the like. The Contractors Committee meets at each of the annual progress meetings.
The Executive Board is the principal governing body of CIRCLE. It consists of representatives of the coordinator and the Workpackage leaders and ensures that the Workpackages and Tasks are conducted in a coherent way. Duties include but are not limited to work progress checking, corrective actions if needed, reporting to the commission, quality assessment, information management, search for new partners. The Executive Board meets three times a year and is in ongoing contact via telecommunication. The Executive Board also oversees ethical issues such as gender equality and societal aspects of CIRCLE.
The Coordinator is responsible for all of the consortium-level project management and, likewise, for guiding the consortium to form a jointly accepted and realistic vision. Martin König of UBA-A coordinates the CA (he currently coordinates the SSA). A project secretariat is established at the coordinating organisation to handle basic administrative issues. The coordinator puts into action decisions of the Contractors Committee and of the Executive Board and the recommendations by the Advisory Board. He represents the CIRCLE consortium to the commission and externally, coordinates the compilation and submissions of progress reports, distributes funds within the consortium, and ensures financial transparency. He oversees the timeliness of CIRCLE especially as to the finalisation of the deliverables. The coordinator performs the creation and possible amendment of the contract and the consortium agreement and oversees the partner’s obtaining audit certificates. The coordinator leads the management Workpackage ("LEAD") and also acts as Workpackage leader of certain other Workpackages.
Workpackage Leaders are responsible for the production of the planned results of their Workpackage in time, in budget and with the agreed upon quality. Their primary duty is both conducting Workpackage related work and coordinating the work of the Task managers and the other consortium members who contribute to the respective Workpackage. The Workpackage leaders conducts Workpackage related meetings and regularly update the Executive Board on Workpackage progress.
Task Leaders are responsible for conducting and coordinating the work related to their specific Task in close cooperation with their respective Workpackage Leader.
Consortium members are responsible to fulfil their individual share of the project work. All members are assigned specific duties within the Tasks and Workpackages.
Observers are admitted according to the above criterion. The admission of new Observers must be permitted by the contractors committee. Observers may participate in all of CIRCLE’s activities including full access to the knowledge generated by the project, but they are excluded from taking decisions related to this project and from reimbursement of personnel costs. They are not represented in the Contractors Committee.
Subcontractors fulfil operative work on behalf of a contractor and may not take decisions as to CIRCLE. The respective contractor, not the coordinator, provides their interface to the project, and they are not represented in the Contractors Committee.
The Advisory Board of CIRCLE is established to lower the risk of project failure and to increase efficiency. It consists of experts of high international reputation and is split in two branches, namely the Policy Branch and the Science Branch. The former consists of policy makers and regulators dealing with Climate Change Impact and Adaptation, the latter consists of scientists working on Climate Change Impact Assessment. The Advisory Board particularly supports the Executive Board as to the strategic and visionary development of CIRCLE.