The project management and implementation structures

• The management unit: it is composed of the management team of the project within the North-West RDA, the international process consultant and other regional actors in the field of technological transfer. The main responsibilities refer to the operational management of the project, under the surveillance of the Steering Committee and they include the coordination of the daily activities, the organization of the administrative, financial and secretarial activities, providing the continuous communication with the partner regions, the report activity for the European Commission, the supervision of the consultant and the preparation of the Steering Committee meetings.

• The Monitoring Committee: a body composed of the key actors in the region, representatives of the local and regional authorities, Chambers of Commerce, Universities, research centers, private sector associations, representative entrepreneurs, ministries, partners in the project, the international process consultant and other relevant actors. The main role of this body is the decisional process regarding the strategic guidelines of the project, the activities and results evaluation and the evaluation of the transfer process of the project results to the companies in the regions. The first meeting of the Steering Committee took place on November 7th 2006 in Cluj-Napoca. On the agenda was the presentation of the activities and of the objectives reached in the First Stage (the first year of implementation of the project) and the approval of the status of the Committee that established the rights and obligations of the members.

• The Advisory Committee: it is a specific technical body composed of the representatives of the project manager, business incubators and technological parks, universities and research institutes, relevant representatives of the business environment. The Advisory Committee will have an operational interface role between the Steering Committee and the Management Unit, being involved in the selection of technical solutions necessary during the implementation of the project. The Committee will meet 3 or 4 times a year, and it will support the decision process carried out by the Project Management Unit. The first meeting of the Consulting Committee took place on December 19 2006 at the headquarters of the North-West RDA Cluj-Napoca. The agenda of the meeting consisted of the presentation of the activities and of the objectives reached in the First Stage (the first year of implementation of the project) and of the analysis methodology of the three axes: the analysis of the innovation demand within the enterprises, the analysis of the Research-Development-Innovation potential of the universities and of the research centers in the region and the analysis of the intermediary segment (banking institutions, industrial parks, consulting companies, technological transfer centers).

• The reference panel: composed of the representatives of the four partner regions and of the international process consultant, the role of the panel is the monitoring of the RIS process and the deepening of the inter-regional dimension of the project.