European research projects

Projects

Between December 2013 and March 2021 I managed three European Commission funded partnership research projects for Coventry University. These were:

Project management

I was a member of each project’s management team that planned, set tone and direction, implemented processes and adapted to change. I monitored progress against detailed descriptions of work/activity, oversaw the quality of written deliverables/reports and the development of policy recommendations/best practice guides.

My relationships with partners were important, as I was able to guide them through the complexity of rules and regulations, offer support, influence activity, identify risks and implement solutions. I kept records of partner expenditure to manage project budgets, agreed their financial statements (on the EC participant portal) and authorised payments to them.

I co-organised events – conferences, workshops, seminars, policy briefings – across Europe, including hosting, speaking, and participating in panel sessions. I had financial oversight to ensure that events worked within budget and that speakers and suppliers were paid.

As the central point for each project, I had an overview of work undertaken, lessons learnt and best practice, and was able to cross-reference activities, draw out findings and shape project conclusions.

I wrote technical project reports and public-facing summaries for the European Commission detailing activity, results and recommendations (that are available on CORDIS – RICHES | Europeana Space | REACH).

Each European Commission project officer commended the quality of my project management.

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I have known Tim from our collaboration within the RICHES project and have formed a very high opinion of him.

Within the RICHES consortium Tim turned out to be the key-figure, without whom the outcome of this successful venture would have been likely very different. His outstanding time-management and communication skills, ability to report precisely and efficiently, leadership skills, overall cheerful personality and an inspiring positive attitude made him an irreplaceable asset of the project.

If I ever have to lead a large research consortium, Tim will be the first person whom I will ask to join as project manager.

Professor Karol Borowiecki, University of Southern Denmark

Editing: project reports and deliverables

Each project followed a detailed description of work/activity that outlined tasks, areas of partner collaboration and the titles of deliverables to describe activities and share findings.

Projects submitted between 21 and 32 deliverables – each ranging between 5,000 and 70,000 words, with an average of 21,500. Some were written by a single partner and others were collaborative, with case studies and content that needed a conclusion to draw arguments together.

I was responsible for quality assurance and partners’ completion of deliverables. I liaised regularly to understand progress and put support and solutions in place when tasks fell behind schedule – including bringing in additional contributors – to ensure that work was completed. Other editing tasks included work on brochures, newsletters and webpages for each project to provide clear messages.

I worked on multiple iterations of deliverables to get them to the necessary standard, seeing at least two versions of many and up to four or five for those where authors needed more support. This included providing initial developmental editing feedback and raising queries to help improve the content, structure and flow.

As most authors were not writing in their first language, many deliverables needed work to improve the level of English – that could involve structural copyediting or a substantial line-by-line edit – as well as work to align varied writing styles to fit with the project’s approach.

The European Commission regularly commented on the quality of the projects’ deliverables.

A former project partner subsequently asked me to copyedit multi-partner written project books detailing Volterra’s years as Tuscan City of Culture and the PAGODE – Europeana China project.

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Partner perspective

I’ve worked with Tim over a period of three years as one of the consortium members on the E-Space programme he managed. Throughout this period, Tim demonstrated his abilities as an exceptional Programme Manager, skilfully balancing the competing demands, timescales and personalities of 30 major partners and multiple work packages, and overseeing teams from many different sectors and countries – an extremely difficult task that Tim managed to deliver with a smile and whilst balancing other, equally-demanding programmes alongside this one.

E-Space was our first EU-funded consortium project, and Tim was indispensable in helping us navigate through some complex processes and requirements – converting his detailed knowledge into clear explanations, firm goals and deliverable action plans. I saw him take a similar approach with all 30 partners, adapting to the specific experience and needs of each one, in order to guide them through the various stages of the process and deliver both on time and on budget.

Furthermore, Tim’s grasp of both the strategic overview and operational detail enabled him to encourage each consortium member to deliver above and beyond what was originally envisaged, as well as identifying and encouraging new linkages between different elements of the programme. This in turn resulted in a stronger, more cohesive programme and set of overall outcomes.

Tim was a persistent driving force throughout the programme, always friendly and willing to assist. That the programme was judged ‘Excellent’ speaks for itself and the quality of work Tim directed. We really hope to be able to work with such a talented programme manager again soon, and would highly recommend Tim to others.

Simon Cronshaw, Co-founder, REMIX Summits

Writing content

Having sat at the heart of each project and overseen completion of all deliverables, I was best-placed to draw conclusions on results and recommendations, and share them. I therefore wrote all deliverables and technical reports that summarised the work of the projects, as well as public-facing summaries. The content of my reports was recognised by the European Commission, due to the comprehensive overview of activity.

Where partner authors were struggling to present their findings or had left the project before finishing their work, I wrote additional content, linking material and/or introductory/concluding sections to ensure that deliverables met their objectives. I also co-authored a RICHES European Commission policy brief on European identity and the Europeana Space games case study for a project book.