Background
This document gives a brief overall description of activities taking place during the two-day Launch Meeting.
Planning the meeting
The project Launch Meeting was held on October 10th – 11th 2018, in the Project Coordinating institution, Aalborg University, Denmark, with a total of 26 participants. The first day of the meeting was focusing on plenary discussions clarifying all aspects of the project while the second day consisted mainly of sessions of parallel meetings.
Conducting the meeting
Day 1: The official Welcome note was given by Professor Anette Kolmos, Director, Aalborg Centre for Problem Based Learning, under the auspices of UNESCO, while Dr. Declare Mushi, Local Project Coordinator, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, gave an address on behalf of the African partners.
Following the official Welcome, the Project Coordinator presented the project activities, the Local Project Coordinator, UCPH, presented the project budget, and the Project Administrator gave a presentation on financial management and reporting, drawing upon information presented in the EACEA Grant Holders’ Meeting in Bruxelles, January 29th–30th 2018.
All three presentations gave rise to considerable discussion, with all participants actively engaged in the discussions. The discussions were very useful because many issues which had hitherto only been discussed via e-mail and/or in online meetings, were clarified through the face-to-face communication.
The day concluded with a reception, sponsored by Aalborg Municipality, in the very beautiful Utzon House on the Aalborg Harbor front, where Second Vice Major for Aalborg Municipality, Nuuradin Hussein, gave a speech.
Day 2: This day was used for 3 sessions of parallel meetings. During Session 1, the Advisory Board, ie. a top manager from each of the 5 African universities plus the Quality Controller from UK, had a first meeting, the Partner Group, ie. the 10 Local Project Coordinators, had a first meeting and the Local Project Managers had a meeting.
Session 2 included parallel meetings for the members of the 5 African partner universities’ Local Task Force (LTF) teams who were present in the Launch Meeting and a first f2f meeting between the two Quality Controllers to discuss QA issues.
Session 3 featured parallel meetings in the 4 training teams (SCL, E-L, E&I and SUS) with as many members of the team as were present, and a meeting between the QC team and the Project Administrator conc. the sub-contracts and QC participation in the two stipulated project conferences.
During the last part of day 2, African partner universities presented results of their internal discussions, the project web manager presented the Virtual learning Platform, a discussion of any outstanding issues and a closing remark and good bye.
Reflections on the meeting
Although the meeting agenda was quite tight, participants did find time for networking and socialization, enhanced by securing accommodation for all participants in the same hotel and arranging joint dinners in good, cheap restaurants in town. From the very beginning of the meeting, the mood among participants was good and the long-standing collaboration with most of the partners gave a positive note throughout the meeting. Generally, participants were happy that the project activities could get started and everybody were keen to get off to a good start and contributed very well to the elaborations in the meeting.
Overall, the meeting was successful, with a good spirit and a high level of engagement, commitment and interest.
Preliminary agenda for the Launch Meeting, October 10th to 11th, 2018
Wednesday, October 10th 2018
Time | Activity |
09:00 – 09:15 | Welcome to the project Launch Meeting by Mona Lisa Dahms, AAU |
09:15 – 09:30 | Welcome to UCPBL by Anette Kolmos, Director UCPBL |
09:30 – 09:45 | Address by African representative Declare Mushi (KCMUCo) |
10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee, tea and snacks |
11:00 – 12:00 | Overview of project activities by Mona Lisa Dahms, AAU |
12:00 – 12:30 | Overview of the project budget by Henrik Bregnhøj, UCPH |
12:30 – 13:00 | Presentation of Project Web Site by Henrik Bregnhøj, UCPH |
13:00 – 14:15 | Joint lunch in Fibigerstræde 15 |
14:15 – 15:15 | Overview of financial management and reporting by Karin Nesheim, AAU |
15:15 – 16:15 | Quality Control activities in the project by John Reilly, QC expert (to be confirmed) |
17:00 – 18:30 | Reception and networking in Utzon House |
Thursday, October 11th 2018
Time | Activity | |
09:00 – 09:10 | Presentation of the revised programme | |
09.10 – 10.40 | Three parallel meetings: Advisory Board, Partner Group (AB, the 5 African members) Partner Group (PG, 10 Local Project Coordinators) Local Project Managers (LPM) | |
10:40 – 10:50 | Coffee/tea | |
10:50 – 11:50 | Each group of African partner university staff: Discussion of university responsibilities and activities, incl. needs assessment . | |
10:50 – 11:50 | QC team: Discussion of quality control activities, incl. dates for visits | |
11:50 – 12:00 | Coffee/tea | |
12:00 – 13:00 | The 4 Training Teams (SCL, E-L, E&I, SUS): Four meetings to discuss training programme, chaired by the 4 Work Package Leaders | |
12:00 – 13:00 | OC team meeting with Project Administrator Karin Nesheim conc. subcontracts | |
13:00 – 14:00 | Joint lunch | |
14:00 – 14:30 | Study visit to Fib 2 – architectural infrastructure in a SCL university by Romeo Turcan | |
14:30 – 15:20 | Presentation of plans by LPCs from African universities – 10 min per university + Q/A | |
15:20 – 15:30 | Presentation of Virtual Learning Platform for collaboration by Henrik Bregnhøj, UCPH | |
15:30 – 16:00 | Discussion of outstanding issues, incl. contractual and financial project management. Chaired by Project Coordinator Mona Lisa Dahms, AAU | |
16:00 – 16:15 | Closing remarks – good bye and see you again | |