Consortium Agreement for AMVA4NewPhysics

T. Dorigo, July 3rd 2015

Miscellanea• After a not entirely painless iteration, we convinced the PO that

there are no real ethics issues– We inserted a footnote on our proposal (now part B of annex 1) which

explains naming conventions for the Higgs etcetera)– I had to promise that we exchange no data outside the EU

• We implemented some minor changes to the part B upon request of the PO– changes in deliverables and milestones, mainly to allow the PO to have a

warning system in place (multiple delivery dates); also changed a few deliverables of administrative nature into milestones

– we had 3 referees requested for ESR letters at recruitment, Paolo C. noted it’s too much for grad students, made it 2

Miscellanea/2

• The Project Officer notified us that they are ready to have us sign the Grant Agreement– We want to do this ASAP as the start time of the grant impacts the

hiring procedures of the first few ESRs– But we need to have a consortium agreement in place to regulate

how we function (governing bodies and their action and operation), how we handle money (transfer of funds and special financiary agreements), what we do in case of controversies (resolution of disputes and competent fora), and the like

– I distributed a draft on June 12th, asking parties to send me their proposed modifications or comments by the end of the month. • I received zero answers

Miscellanea/3

• It appears that we can start advertising positions even if we have not a final signature of the GA– UNIPD has started the process as they have hard

deadlines for admission of their ESR in the PhD program– We need to work with the means we have now to start

it (no press office, no money for paid advertisement)– I expect everybody will help distributing information on

the openings– I will work with whomever of you wants help in this – I

actually would like to be part of the process in all cases

Miscellanea/4• A group of ATLAS/CMS physicists is organizing a workshop in machine

learning at CERN, on the first week of November– this stems from the ATLAS Higgs challenge, idea is to continue along that

thread, importing advanced techniques into LHC practice– They have plans to make this a periodic rendez-vous (like the, or better

substituting the, phystat series)– Of course we are interested; more than that – this event is exactly like one

we proposed to have (on month 12 though)• unfortunately it makes little sense to make it our event as we would have no ESR to

send there nor results to discuss– Paris and I talked to the chair of the organizing committee and we agreed

that there are synergies to exploit with our network; I have been added to their organizing committee

– I need to talk with Maria Spiropulu who is in the OC and the supervisor of the chair, but she’s been hard to catch so far.

Miscellanea/5

• The project officer wants to know if we are going to organize a kick-off meeting for the project. – We do have something like that foreseen by our Gantt

chart (the first ITN meeting, on month 3), but she wants to know for sure and to know date and details

– We could decide to convene at CERN at the beginning of October, if you agree (also in videoconference of course)

Miscellanea/6• Mauro Morandin, who handles external funds and projects and

other issues in INFN-PD, asked me if we want to use some administrative tools for AMVA4NewPhysics– EMDESK http://www.emdesk.com/en/– EURESCOM http://www.eurescom.eu/eurestools.html

Do you have any experience with them ? These are products for which the user pays (EMDESK is 15 euro/month/party). I do not know if we need them, but they might be useful – or provide additional complications.

I tentatively answered that if INFN buys the licences and offers them to us then I’m willing to attempt to use them, but that I’m not unforking the money for st I do not know for sure we need

Comments welcome.

DESCA• The draft of the CA is based on the template

provided by DESCA at http://www.desca-2020.eu/

I also got inputfrom Joao (thanks)who provided mewith a copy of theCA they used fortheir PicoSec net

I tried to simplify the DESCA templatehere and there (itis redundant for us)and to include theparts we want tohave in it

Structure of document• The CA works as an addition to the CA, in the sense that it

specifies things a little better and relies on matters already defined there

There are sectionsthat describe mattersof little interest to us,but so far I did not edit them out

There may be thingsit does not yet containwhich we may wantto add – on this I needyour input!

Missing data

• I need exact coordinates of the signatories to be included in the header of the document (see right)

• Please provide them as soon as possible

Proposed changes/additions

Proposed changes/additions /2

Here A.Lombardo pointed out that 2 calendar days are not enough for the EBas the agenda is sent 2 days before the meeting too. May make that 3.

Proposed changes/additions/3

Proposed changes/additions/4

Proposed changes/additions/5

• Here A.Lombardo notes that it is not clear as the funds are already proportional to ESR months

As this is a bit confusing (who is retaining what, i.e. Frascati who keeps 20% or lessof the M&O quota of INFN-PD, or INFN-PD (the coordinator) who needs 80k at the end, it was suggested that we switch to a more generic text (see next slide):

Proposed changes/additions/6

• “The parties agree that the coordinator will retain a fraction of their M&O funds, to guarantee an effective organization bla bla. The total amount of withheld funds will not exceed the maximum of 80,000 euro”

Proposed changes/additions/7

Next steps• We need to finalize the consortium agreement• Then we need to have it signed by our institutes

– I expect this will take some time, given what has happened with the declaration of honour

– So we need to move forward quickly, and I count on your active commitment– If you have “black-out” periods in the next 1.5 months when you plan to be

unreachable I need to know it• Finally we can have the GA signed

– have no idea if this will take time or not– please get in touch with your staffs to make sure that they are prepared and

that there are no hindrances foreseen• Then we can start – I think we realistically should aim at September

1st anyway