KickOff Meeting in Belgrade

BAEKTEL kick-off meeting was held in Belgrade on February 24-25, 2014. The meeting was attended by representatives of all Consortium members except University of Iasi. At the opening of the meeting Vice Rector of the University of Belgrade for scientific research, professor Ivanka Popović, welcomed the participants, and remarked that BAEKTEL project offers a very good opportunity to strengthen relations between the academia and the SMEs. Professor Giovanni Schiuma also welcomed the participants on behalf of the coordinator, University of Basilicata, expressing his pleasure that Basilicata will coordinate this project, and stressing that the most important issues are that the consortium works together as a team and follows the guidelines and procedures provided by the European Union.

A short overview of the project was given by professor Ivan Obradović, followed by partner introduction, and their presentations of the view of their roles in the project. Valuable information was offered by the representative of National TEMPUS office, Nina Stojanović, who also attended the meeting, related to important documents, such as the Grant agreement, Guidelines for the use of the grant for projects 2013, IMRs, staff conventions and timesheets. Managerial and financial issues were further discussed, and professor Ranka Stankovic gave an overview of the revised budget and deliverables.

Partners formed a Project Management Board and a WB Universities Regional Coordination Team., and named responsible persons for each deliverable. An administrative board was also formed from one person from each university to be in charge of administrative issues.

On the second day, Jelena Prodanović, IT specialist from UB, introduced the methods and platforms that will be used for communication during the project (Micorosoft Cloud services, Lync video conferencing, AW Connect). She also discussed the purchase of the domain for hosting the project website, branding the project (BAEKTEL logo has been chosen by vote), and levels of access to information on the website.

The second project coordination meeting has been planned for mid-September in Matera, Italy, whereas a regional meeting will be held in mid-May, hosted by the Montenegrin partner.

Photo gallery is available on official facebook page [link].