Glossary

Many definitions are needed to understand the European circumstances for the SNOWMAN project, the ERA-Nets and the mechanisms developed from these.

Aiming to help you to find an easier way through that jungle of terms and definitions, we created this glossary. Of course, it is not completed yet, due to the enourmous number of things to be explained. But something missing now, might be added already, when you visit our homepage again!

• Call Secretariat / Secretariat:
  The Call Secretariat is the administrative support to the coordinated call. It provides general support including
  
  - Coordination of call advertising and promotion; - providing a 'first stop shop' point of contact for applicants;
  
  - providing a mailing address for applications;
  
  - checking the eligibility of proposals during the call when they are received;
  
  - providing administrative support to the SNOWMAN Steering Committee and Core Group as required.
   
• Call Steering Committee (CSC):
  The Call Steering Committee (CSC)consists of one representatives per country of the co-ordinated call funding bodies, and will be chaired by an elected chair-person. The CSC is responsible on behalf of the funding organisations for the execution of the co-ordinated call (from the announcement to the approval of final reports) in line with the principles paper for the SNOWMAN coordinated call. Within the first meeting of the CSC a detailed work plan will be prepared. They is assisted by the Call Secretariat.
   
• COMMON FORUM:
  The COMMON FORUM is a platform for cooperation between the environmental ministries and agencies of the European Union partner countries within the field of contaminated land.
   
• Core Group / SNOWMAN Core Group:
  The SNOWMAN core group (CG) is the decision-making arm of the project in the case of the redirection of project strategy or in the case of escalation. In the case of a major disagreement between partners, the core group will assemble to resolve the issue(s). The CG will also review the progress of work and will decide upon alterations or additions in the work plan.
  
  The CG consists of one representative per country. Head of the CG is the Co-ordinator. The core group will meet at least three times during the project. Through the project management platform it will be possible to decide without meeting in person.
   
• E.R.A., ERA-Nets and ERA-Net scheme:
  Starting with the European Framework Programme 6 for Research and Technological Development, the European Commission introduced the ERA-Net scheme. The three letters E.R.A. stand for "European Research Area" and include the intention to create a European internal market for research, restructuring the European research fabric and the development of a European research policy. The ERA networks, ERA-Net(s), have been created to support the cooperation and coordination of research programmes in the EU at the trans-national level.
   
• Funders Group:
  The funders group will include decision-making representatives of funding organisations which are interested in SNOWMAN. The funders group will be kept informed of developments in SNOWMAN, and the SNOWMAN consortium's aspirations.
   
• National contributions model:
  The "national contributions model" is another term for the "virtual common pot model". It is one of the most commonly used funding models by the ERA-Nets. Some kind of a counterpart to this funding model is the "common pot model" or "real common pot model". You will find a more detailed explanation within this glossary in place of the "virtual common pot" and "common pot" terms.
   
• Project Management Team:
  In SNOWMAN, the BMFLUW (Dr. Stefan Vetter) takes the role as coordinator. The coordinator is responsible for the technical direction of the project and the coordination and benchmarking of developments, technical activities and quality of the relevant deliverables. Furthermore, the coordinator sets up a project management (PM) team.
  
  The project management team consists of the coordinator and a further qualified project management team. The PM Team is responsible for legal (including IPR), contractual, ethical, financial and administrative management of the consortium according to the contract as well as for reporting, infrastructure, workshop and meeting coordination, moderation and documentation.
   
• SNOWMAN:
  Run under the 6th Framework Programme of the European Union, SNOWMAN is one of the ongoing ERA-NET (European Research Area - NETworks) projects.
  
  Its working area within the field of sustainable management of soil and groundwater under the pressure of soil pollution and soil contamination links it very closely to other European projects, especially EUGRIS (The portal for soil and water management within Europe), COMMON FORUM and EURODEMO (EUROpean co-ordination action for DEMOnstration of efficient soil and groundwater remediation).
   
• Task Leader (TL), Task Team (TT), Sub-Task Leader (STL):
  The task leader (TL) supports the workpackage leaders in the reporting and communication procedures. They are responsible for the organisation and coordination of their respective task and together with the task team (TT) for the timely production of the planned deliverables. One TT is represented by the respective TL and the sub-task leaders (STL). This group will push forward the progress of work and will decide upon alterations or additions in the work plan of a specific task. A STL is responsible for the specific work on this level, collecting data, sourcing agreements, asking for inputs, providing outputs etc. from and by the project partners. They are responsible for the timely production of the planned deliverables.
   
• Virtual common pot:
  The virtual common pot is one of the most commonly used funding models by the ERA-Nets. Another term also used in the past for the model of the virtual common pot was "national contributions model". The second important funding model used by the ERA-Nets is the "Common pot" or "Real common pot" model.
  
  In the virtual common pot model, each country will fund those components of transnational research proposals which take place domestically. For example, in the case of a SNOWMAN proposal from researchers in the Netherlands and France, the Dutch researcher would be funded by SKB, and the French researcher by ADEME.
  
  The adoption of this funding model, in which national funding is applied in a transnationally coordinated way, has a wide range of implications, for example:
  • Funding within each country will be based on the funders existing funding rules;
  • the maximum funding rates will therefore differ between countries;
  • eligibility of costs will vary between countries;
  • proposals must be scaled to remain within the available budget within each participating country.

  Whilst at first glance this might seem complex, the rules within each country should already be familiar to potential participants.
   

• Work Package Leader (WPL):
  A workpackage leader (WPL) is a designated partner of a work package and responsible for the organisation and coordination of contributions of the other partners i.e. for summarising the data generated and making them available within the given time to the core group and the project management team, respectively. This person communicates all deviations from the workplan to the core group. The WPL in charge is responsible for the reporting and the work to be carried out.
   
• Work Package Team (WPT):
  Worckpackage teams (WPT) are represented by the WPL (Work Package Leader) and the task leaders within the respective Workpackage. The WPT will push forward the progress of work and will decide upon alterations or additions in the work plan. They are responsible for the timely production of the planned deliverables.