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Malicia – An EU STREP Projectwithin FP7 ICT FET Open Call

Géza Giedke (MPQ Theory Division)

Nov 27, 2013ICT and FET in Horizon 2020

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The Project

Light-Matter Interfaces in Absence of Cavities (Malicia)

“FP7 Specific programme Cooperation - Research theme:Information and communication technologies”STREP: Specific Targeted Research Projectsobjective: build quantum networks of atomic systems coupled bypropagating light fields;avoid cavities, instead use atomic ensembles or cold Rydbergatoms for sufficient coupling strengthparticipants: 7 groups from Denmark, Germany, and Italyduration: Feb 2011 - Jan 2014

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The Project: Consortium

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The Project: Budget

between 230kAC and 450kAC per beneficiarytotal EU contribution: 2.26 MAC

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How did MPQ/I get involved

grew out of a prior EU STREP-FP7-ICT project (COMPAS)combining the system studied there (atomic ensembles) with anew one (Rydberg atoms)members selected for expertise in the two fields (also: nationaldiversity helps)my involvement: was asked to join at the proposal writing stagehad little to do with negotiations/administration

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What had to be done (besides research)?

proposal writing – hiring – reportingfrom first discussions to final proposal: pretty fast (06/10 to 02/11)

1 month from first discussion to submission3 months to receipt of evaluation reportthen: another 4 months to negotiate contract

proposal writing:modular: work packages, deliverables, milestonesstrongly formalizedEU office and project coordinator (LENS Florence in our case) tookcare of administrative matters and contact to EU

FET: proposal should point out practical/technologicalpromise/applications of research

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Proposal: Work Packages

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Proposal: Promised Effort

each beneficiary focusses some work packages, but mostcontribute man-months to many (cooperation!)

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Proposal: Milestones

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Proposal: Technological Promise

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A Typical Work Package

our project consisted of five work packageseach with a lead beneficiary and several contributing partnerslead beneficiary is in charge of writing/reporting: solicits andcompiles reports from contributorseach WP contains ∼ 10 deliverables: precisely defined sub-tasks,contributors, completion datesevaluation will be done relative to these promises

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Reporting

administrative workload fairly benign for us (but probably a lot oftedious work was done by coordinator / EU office)time sheets (filled out by those paid for by the project)yearly progress reports (a couple of pages per work package,short presentations to referees);coordinator: negotiates with EU project officer; has to solicit thisand to compile full reportannual one-day review meetingreferees are scientists: understand problems that may occur inresearch project, open to reasonable solutions

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Things to pay attention to

hiring: it may take long to fill the position! who’ll do the promisedwork until then?milestones/deliverables: be as specific as necessary, but leave asmuch freedom as possible;don’t over-promise!good to have some EU-experienced participants in the projectequal-opportunity aspect: “gender balance” in research andproject management (recommended)consortium agreement: start as soon as possible with thecontract: negotiating with several European host institutions canbe very time consuming

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