Governance structure
INSPIRED-RIs are affiliated with the ESFRI Landmark for Structural Biology, INSTRUCT-ERIC (Press Release). The governance structure that was used was based on that of INSTRUCT-ERIC and was adjusted accordingly to provide INSPIRED-RIs with sufficient time to consolidate the merger between INSTRUCT-EL and UPAT-RISF.
The national research infrastructure INSPIRED comprises two complementary structures a) INSTRUCT-EL and b) UPAT-RISF, thus a flexible governance scheme was adopted with the aim to foster the dialogue and the cooperation of the structures in multiple levels. The derived structure aims were as follows:
1. The “General Coordinator” of the Action INSPIRED-RIs is the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) headed by Dr. Evangelia D. Chrysina, Senior Researcher, at the Institute of Chemical Biology, NHRF.
2. The “Coordinator of INSTRUCT-EL” is NHRF headed by Dr. E.D. Chrysina. The structure of INSTRUCT-EL comprises the “Executive Committee”, the members of which are responsible for the overall implementation of INSTRUCT-EL. The main responsibilities of the executive committee involve a) the preparation of progress reports, b) the coordination and implementation of the actions described and c) the promotion of the aims for regional convergence to be aligned with the aims of INSTRUT-EL. The Executive Committee will be formed by five (5) members, the coordinator of INSTRUCT-EL and four (4) representatives from the participating organizations who will be elected by the Assembly of partners of INSTRUCT-EL. The Assembly of partners is composed by representatives of every organization (department or institute) that provides services (the number of representatives will be equal to the number of the participating departments or institutes if it is for universities or research centres, respectively). The decisions will be taken with simple majority and eligible for voting will be only one representative from each institute/ department of the participating organizations. The Assembly of partners is responsible for a) monitoring of the management of the actions including the deliverables, b) the progress of the equipment procurements and the services provided by INSTRUCT-EL as they are described in the Technical Annex of INSPIRED and c) the promotion and the safeguard of the partners’ interests securing the smooth operation of the RI. In addition, the Assembly of partners of INSTRUCT-EL may pursue the establishment of the subgroups/task forces in specific scientific thematic areas or actions like the joint research activities to further promote the networking of the research infrastructure. Although a distinct executive board was initially foreseen for the two pillars, each partner had the full responsibility of the project management, co-ordination and implementation through their organization; therefore, the role of the Executive Board has been adopted by the assembly of partners.
3. The “Coordinator of UPAT-RISF” is the University of Patras (UPAT) headed by the Prof. G.A. Spyroulias. The governance structure of UPAT-RISF includes the “Executive Committee” that comprises the coordinator of UPAT-RIS, six (6) members and (6) substitute members (out of which four (4) are faculty members of the University of Patras along with four (4) substitutes and two (2) are faculty members of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology-Biological Research FORTH, based in Ioannina, with also two (2) substitutes). The members of the Executive Committee main task is a) the monitoring of the proper execution and implementation of the project and the fulfilment of the goals set as they are described in the individual work packages within the planned time frame and b) the adherence to the schedule set for preparing the deliverables and the reports, c) resolving issues that the members of UPAT-RISF may face and find alternative solutions and d) drawing of the strategic plan of the network and UPAT-RISF. Although a distinct executive board was initially foreseen for the two pillars, each partner had the full responsibility of the project management, co-ordination and implementation through their organization; therefore, the role of the Executive Board has been adopted by the assembly of partners .
4. The “Steering Committee” which is composed by five (5) members: Michael Kokkinidis, Professor, Department of Biology, University of Crete; Stavros Taraviras, Professor, School of Medicine, University of Patras; Konstantinos Poulas, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy, University of Patras; Stergios Pispas, Research Director, Institute of Theoretical and Physical Chemistry, NHRF; Spyros Zographos, Research Director, Institute of Chemical Biology, NHRF and one observer from the funding body. The responsibilities of the Steering Committee (SC) are as follows: a) the SC reports to the coordinator of INSPIRED, b) interacts with the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), c) coordinates and encourages joint actions among the two pillars, d) monitors the smooth execution and implementation of the INSPIRED, e) coordinates the individual strategies for the accomplishment of synergistic actions, f) resolves disputes and has the power to make decisions on the issues that might occur between INSTRUCT-EL and UPAT-RISF, provided that all possibilities for a compromise solution have been exhausted, and intervenes in the internal affairs of each network only in the event that no convergence has taken place, in order to ensure the smooth operation of the RI.
5. The “Scientific Advisory Committee” (SAC) is composed by five (5) members and their responsibility is to monitor and advise the Coordinators of the two pillars of INSPIRED-RIs as well as the “General Coordinator” for the smooth operation of the RI. For this purpose, prominent members of the Structural Biology community and other branches of Life Sciences will be selected either from Greece or abroad, who are active in the field of the expanded infrastructure. The Assembly of partners together with the Steering Committee will propose potential members which will then be decided jointly (indicative two from each infrastructure component and one from the Steering Committee). The members of the Committee will have clear expertise and experience in the services provided by INSPIRED-RIs. Their proposals will be very targeted at the basic actions of the infrastructure, e.g. user access, JRAs, as well as issues related to the infrastructure sustainability.
The Assembly of partners has decided for the SAC to be formed by three instead of five members that were initially planned and to be enriched at later stage with more members from “boundary spanners”. SAC has already been appointed and is composed by:
Prof. Sir David Stuart, Lead INSTRUCT Scientist-MRC Professor of Structural Biology, Oxford Life Science Director Diamond and Director of Instruct-ERIC (until December 2021);
Prof. Lucia Banci, Lead INSTRUCT Scientist-Director of CERM - CERM/CIRMMP, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florence and
Prof. Arwen Pearson, Hamburg University, Professor of Experimental Biophysics and responsible for the development and the construction of the time-resolved macromolecular crystallography beamline at EMBL-PETRA III in collaboration with EMBL-Hamburg outstation.
6. The main “Users” of the infrastructure are Structural Biologists and scientists active in the extended thematic areas covered by INSPIRED. Users can be scientists either from the laboratories that participate in the infrastructure or from the wider scientific community. Their access to the infrastructure will be given upon request, while they will receive the appropriate "training" that will concern both the "safe" use of the infrastructure in terms of equipment and data resulting from the work (according to the IP and data policy foreseen for the RI and agreed in the consortium agreement). Their profile is young or experienced researchers, graduates or MSc holders, PhD students, post-doctoral scientists or other scientists who are active in the private sector and the industry.
7. The “Innovation Ambassadors/Boundary spanners” committee will be composed of representatives of industry, regions, but also non-specialized users (e.g. from hospitals) as well as the media. The aim of the Boundary spanners committee will be to define a strategic plan for the communication policy of the infrastructure, to promote its services. Their role will be crucial and will help the penetration of the infrastructure in areas that will contribute to ensuring its viability, but also to the development of the country. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the activation of the committee has been delayed.
INSPIRED-RIs are currently discussing the statutes of the NRI, under which the NRI will run after September 30th, 2022 (end of the funding period) to secure the viability of the NRI. Targeted meetings are planned for this purpose. In the assembly of partners on January 12th, 2022, it was decided that
The improved governance structure of INSPIRED-RIs to be adopted after September 30th 2022, is demonstrated in the following figure.
The national research infrastructure INSPIRED comprises two complementary structures a) INSTRUCT-EL and b) UPAT-RISF, thus a flexible governance scheme was adopted with the aim to foster the dialogue and the cooperation of the structures in multiple levels. The derived structure aims were as follows:
- to encourage the interaction between the partners for promoting and strengthening the services provided in the individual thematic fields,
- to foster synergies, particularly through joint research activities-JRAs for the development of new methodologies that will improve the services offered according to international scientific and technological advancements
- to secure the optimum management for the two sub-structures (INSTRUCT-EL / UPAT-RISF) through the creation of an independent governance scheme for each structure
- to monitor the smooth implementation of the NRI actions and to resolve possible disputes, a Steering Committee has been created
- to secure the operation of the NRI in accordance with the highest scientific/quality criteria through a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC).
The governance structure of the national research infrastructure (NRI) includes 1) the General Coordinator of INSPIRED-RIs, 2) the Coordinator of INSTRUCT-EL, 3) the Coordinator of UPAT-RISF, 4) the Steering Committee (SC), 5) the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), 6) the Users and 7) the Innovation Ambassadors-Boundary spanners.
1. The “General Coordinator” of the Action INSPIRED-RIs is the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) headed by Dr. Evangelia D. Chrysina, Senior Researcher, at the Institute of Chemical Biology, NHRF.
2. The “Coordinator of INSTRUCT-EL” is NHRF headed by Dr. E.D. Chrysina. The structure of INSTRUCT-EL comprises the “Executive Committee”, the members of which are responsible for the overall implementation of INSTRUCT-EL. The main responsibilities of the executive committee involve a) the preparation of progress reports, b) the coordination and implementation of the actions described and c) the promotion of the aims for regional convergence to be aligned with the aims of INSTRUT-EL. The Executive Committee will be formed by five (5) members, the coordinator of INSTRUCT-EL and four (4) representatives from the participating organizations who will be elected by the Assembly of partners of INSTRUCT-EL. The Assembly of partners is composed by representatives of every organization (department or institute) that provides services (the number of representatives will be equal to the number of the participating departments or institutes if it is for universities or research centres, respectively). The decisions will be taken with simple majority and eligible for voting will be only one representative from each institute/ department of the participating organizations. The Assembly of partners is responsible for a) monitoring of the management of the actions including the deliverables, b) the progress of the equipment procurements and the services provided by INSTRUCT-EL as they are described in the Technical Annex of INSPIRED and c) the promotion and the safeguard of the partners’ interests securing the smooth operation of the RI. In addition, the Assembly of partners of INSTRUCT-EL may pursue the establishment of the subgroups/task forces in specific scientific thematic areas or actions like the joint research activities to further promote the networking of the research infrastructure. Although a distinct executive board was initially foreseen for the two pillars, each partner had the full responsibility of the project management, co-ordination and implementation through their organization; therefore, the role of the Executive Board has been adopted by the assembly of partners.
3. The “Coordinator of UPAT-RISF” is the University of Patras (UPAT) headed by the Prof. G.A. Spyroulias. The governance structure of UPAT-RISF includes the “Executive Committee” that comprises the coordinator of UPAT-RIS, six (6) members and (6) substitute members (out of which four (4) are faculty members of the University of Patras along with four (4) substitutes and two (2) are faculty members of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology-Biological Research FORTH, based in Ioannina, with also two (2) substitutes). The members of the Executive Committee main task is a) the monitoring of the proper execution and implementation of the project and the fulfilment of the goals set as they are described in the individual work packages within the planned time frame and b) the adherence to the schedule set for preparing the deliverables and the reports, c) resolving issues that the members of UPAT-RISF may face and find alternative solutions and d) drawing of the strategic plan of the network and UPAT-RISF. Although a distinct executive board was initially foreseen for the two pillars, each partner had the full responsibility of the project management, co-ordination and implementation through their organization; therefore, the role of the Executive Board has been adopted by the assembly of partners .
4. The “Steering Committee” which is composed by five (5) members: Michael Kokkinidis, Professor, Department of Biology, University of Crete; Stavros Taraviras, Professor, School of Medicine, University of Patras; Konstantinos Poulas, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy, University of Patras; Stergios Pispas, Research Director, Institute of Theoretical and Physical Chemistry, NHRF; Spyros Zographos, Research Director, Institute of Chemical Biology, NHRF and one observer from the funding body. The responsibilities of the Steering Committee (SC) are as follows: a) the SC reports to the coordinator of INSPIRED, b) interacts with the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), c) coordinates and encourages joint actions among the two pillars, d) monitors the smooth execution and implementation of the INSPIRED, e) coordinates the individual strategies for the accomplishment of synergistic actions, f) resolves disputes and has the power to make decisions on the issues that might occur between INSTRUCT-EL and UPAT-RISF, provided that all possibilities for a compromise solution have been exhausted, and intervenes in the internal affairs of each network only in the event that no convergence has taken place, in order to ensure the smooth operation of the RI.
5. The “Scientific Advisory Committee” (SAC) is composed by five (5) members and their responsibility is to monitor and advise the Coordinators of the two pillars of INSPIRED-RIs as well as the “General Coordinator” for the smooth operation of the RI. For this purpose, prominent members of the Structural Biology community and other branches of Life Sciences will be selected either from Greece or abroad, who are active in the field of the expanded infrastructure. The Assembly of partners together with the Steering Committee will propose potential members which will then be decided jointly (indicative two from each infrastructure component and one from the Steering Committee). The members of the Committee will have clear expertise and experience in the services provided by INSPIRED-RIs. Their proposals will be very targeted at the basic actions of the infrastructure, e.g. user access, JRAs, as well as issues related to the infrastructure sustainability.
The Assembly of partners has decided for the SAC to be formed by three instead of five members that were initially planned and to be enriched at later stage with more members from “boundary spanners”. SAC has already been appointed and is composed by:
Prof. Sir David Stuart, Lead INSTRUCT Scientist-MRC Professor of Structural Biology, Oxford Life Science Director Diamond and Director of Instruct-ERIC (until December 2021);
Prof. Lucia Banci, Lead INSTRUCT Scientist-Director of CERM - CERM/CIRMMP, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florence and
Prof. Arwen Pearson, Hamburg University, Professor of Experimental Biophysics and responsible for the development and the construction of the time-resolved macromolecular crystallography beamline at EMBL-PETRA III in collaboration with EMBL-Hamburg outstation.
6. The main “Users” of the infrastructure are Structural Biologists and scientists active in the extended thematic areas covered by INSPIRED. Users can be scientists either from the laboratories that participate in the infrastructure or from the wider scientific community. Their access to the infrastructure will be given upon request, while they will receive the appropriate "training" that will concern both the "safe" use of the infrastructure in terms of equipment and data resulting from the work (according to the IP and data policy foreseen for the RI and agreed in the consortium agreement). Their profile is young or experienced researchers, graduates or MSc holders, PhD students, post-doctoral scientists or other scientists who are active in the private sector and the industry.
7. The “Innovation Ambassadors/Boundary spanners” committee will be composed of representatives of industry, regions, but also non-specialized users (e.g. from hospitals) as well as the media. The aim of the Boundary spanners committee will be to define a strategic plan for the communication policy of the infrastructure, to promote its services. Their role will be crucial and will help the penetration of the infrastructure in areas that will contribute to ensuring its viability, but also to the development of the country. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the activation of the committee has been delayed.
INSPIRED-RIs are currently discussing the statutes of the NRI, under which the NRI will run after September 30th, 2022 (end of the funding period) to secure the viability of the NRI. Targeted meetings are planned for this purpose. In the assembly of partners on January 12th, 2022, it was decided that
- the two pillars of the NRI will be eliminated,
- the governance scheme will be modified to have only the General Coordinator, an Executive Board, as the supervisory body for the execution of the project
- the Executive Board will report to and will be accountable to the Assembly of Partners, and the General Coordinator.
- the Assembly of Partners will be one and the rest of the committees (Steering, Scientific and Innovation Ambassadors) will remain the same.
The improved governance structure of INSPIRED-RIs to be adopted after September 30th 2022, is demonstrated in the following figure.