Frequently Asked Questions

2. What is the planned duration and budget of APSN?
APSN will last 4 years (1-4-2004 to 31-3-2008) and will have a budget of 3.8 million Euro (1.8 million Euro for the first 18 months).

3. What is the final goal of APSN? What is a Virtual Institute?
An important idea behind the new instrument is that a NoE is designed for continuity. So in 4 years time, APSN should be able to run by itself without any more EU funding. In other words, the final goal of the network is to build up a self-sustaining Virtual Institute. This Virtual Institute should have a legal basis in order to be durable. Accordingly, the work of the network in the years to come will be to define what will be the form of this Virtual Institute: a representative association or a business unit, etc. All possibilities are open today and will be carefully studied within the workpackage (WP) 9. Indeed, this WP9 aims at developing a business plan in order to create a self-sustaining entity that will follow APSN work. In addition, the workpackage 8 on e-networking may bring other insights on how to build up the “virtual” side of this institute.

4. What is a Joint Programme of Activities?
The Joint Programme of Activities (JPA) is the plan of action for implementing a Network of Excellence. Networks of Excellence are expected to induce and to manage processes of change: 1) to remove mental, financial, technical and legal barriers to integration; 2) to durably “institutionalise” the links between the institutions involved, which will imply the restructuring of the research portfolios and of the existing organizational structures. The JPA must show the serious commitment of all partners to organizational change.
Every 12 months a new work plan, so-called Joint Programme of Activities (JPA), will be defined and voted by the General Assembly. The JPA describes which integrating activities, jointly executed research activities, spreading of excellence activities and management activities will be performed in that corresponding period.

5. How is the APSN structured?
The creation of the Virtual Institute will be done in a step by step approach. During the first phase of the network, the activities will focus on investigating and preparing integration opportunities. In a later stage, the members may decide to reshape the NoE (and therefore the way research is carried out) in a more drastic way, also including the sharing of investments and costs in a particular infrastructures, assets being made available by one network participant to the other; or the sharing of equipment, infrastructure facilities and personnel exchange. The “evolutionary phases” of the NoE are reflected in the 1st and subsequent Joint Programme(s) of Activities (JPA), which will be revised every 12 months.

The proposed JPA for the 1st phase is structured around 9 work packages (WP), 5 working groups (WG) and 5 user groups (UG):
- WP1 ensures central management and control over all the network-related activities.
- WP2 is aiming at the integration of the major stakeholder activities in the field of automotive passive safety (industry, researchers, consumers and regulators).
- WP3 will generate four integrated web based databases for test use.
- WP4 is dedicated to the identification and integration of running and future research and technology development projects within the following five working groups:
- WG1: Real world accident and injury data including medicine and injury cost
- WG2: Biomechanics, dummy development and test methods
- WG3: Virtual testing and modeling
- WG4: Material & structural crashworthiness
- WG5: Integrated safety including restraint systems
- WP5 is focussing on the identification and specification of the user needs regarding traffic safety by analysing five user & application groups: 1) passenger cars, pedestrians & children, 2) motorcycle safety, 3) heavy vehicles, 4) road infrastructure and services and 5) non-road safety.
- WP6 will develop integrated training courses and public awareness campaigns.
- WP7 should make passive safety information easily accessible for all involved.
- WP8 investigates virtual and interactive working methods and their use for the NoE.
- WP9 investigates the feasibility of the virtual institute and the envisaged durable integration by developing and testing of a business model.

6. How are decisions taken within APSN?
There are three main decision organs in APSN:
- The General Assembly (GA): composed of representatives from each member organisation chaired by the network co-ordinator and having a vice-chairman from the membership in case of decision involving the role of the co-ordinator.
- The Executive Committee: composed of the workpackage leaders and chaired by the network co-ordinator.
- The Advisory Board: composed of stakeholders representatives. The Advisory Committee will have the power to issue recommendations to the GA and the Executive Committee on common vision for APSN, policy issues, harmonisation & standardisation issues, and research integration.

The main decisions such as changes in the work plan, priorities or in the budget, are taken by the GA The Executive Committee will prepare the main documents for the GA decisions. However should the GA not agree, with the proposals of the Executive Committee, the latest should update the documents according to the GA decisions and comments.

7. Are the roles and responsibilities within APSN fixed during the course of the project?
APSN was built with a flexible structure allowing the GA representatives, under proposition of the Executive Committee, to vote for important changes in the Annual Joint Programme of Activities. This flexibility can be translated for example in the creation/deletion of workpackages, working groups, user groups, development of new events, etc. depending on the changes in priorities envisioned. To start with in the 1st year, all the partners developed a first JPA: the current proposal/annex 1 of the EC contract. This first JPA will be officially adopted during the 1st General Assembly meeting on 7 April 2004. Every year, the Executive Committee will update the JPA with a corresponding budget breakdown subject to the approval of the General Assembly.

8. My company would like to have more responsibilities within APSN, is that possible in the future?
Thanks to the network flexible structure, every partner who wishes to take a new role or having a new idea can come forward and present his/her suggestions. Partners who are interested in expanding their role within the Network should first state their interest to the network Co-ordinator (TNO). The network co-ordinator will then present the partner‘s proposal to the Executive Committee for review before it may be presented to the General Assembly as part of the revised JPA.

9. Can I become an APSN member?
The NoE now comprises a core group of partners who have provided necessary assurances to the European Commission of their willingness to commit physical resources (e.g. personal, facilities, equipment) to the NoE with a clearly expressed goal to work for creation of a Virtual Institute and to participate in this future institute. These core partners have acceded to the Contract with the European Commission.

It will be possible to have a second tier of ‘satellite’ partners, but they will not receive funding from the European Commission, nor will they accede to the Contract. The role of this second tier will essentially be that of ‘interested observer’, with no commitment of resources to the Virtual Institute. Subsequently, it would be possible for satellite partners to accede to the Contract if they - with the full agreement of the General Assembly - decide that they would like to become part of the NoE and participate in the future Virtual Institute. One should note that satellite partners are free to participate in research projects initiated by the Virtual Institute; however, this participation would be without European Commission funding.

10. What is a Grant for Integration in FP6?
For Networks of Excellence, the European Community financial contribution takes the form of a fixed grant for integration to attain the objective of the JPA. The total amount of the grant is calculated taking into account the degree of integration, the number of researchers that all participants intend to integrate, the characteristics of the field of research concerned and the JPA. This contribution is to be used to complement the resources deployed by the participants in order to carry out the JPA.

11. Can the NoE fund research initiatives undertaken by my organisation/institute?
The Joint Programme of Activities (of Years 2, 3 and 4) should include specific joint research activities contributing to the overall objective of durable integration. The related costs are eligible. It is however not possible to declare all research activities of a participant in the field covered by the NoE as a part of the JPA.

12. Is there a relation between the number of man months work as described in the technical annex 1 of the contract and the available budget for that work?
The budget allocation for the first 18 months period is partly based on the outputs produced (deliverables) and partly partner specific (fixed amount for Travel & subsistence cost and cost of audit certificates). The number of man months, as described in the technical annex 1 of the contract, is used solely for valuing and benchmarking the defined deliverable. So, if the deliverable is for instance a report, partners can spend 1 month or 6 months to write the report, this will however not change their allocated budget for their specific deliverable.

13. What amounts shall I receive from the Network?
The payments from the Network to the partners shall be based on their contributions to the achievement of certain deliverables and - of course - also on the corresponding actual costs. This means that transfer of (initial) budget is possible when justified and approved. Please note that as a rule, the resources brought to the Network by a core partner for the purpose of integration or spreading of excellence should exceed the amounts received from the Network. This could in theory be only 1 Euro.

Last update: August 2004