Project management and coordination have crucial role to ensure successful implementation and to achieve the project objectives. It is important that the partnership:

Establishes effective management structure (with sufficient capacity) and procedures;
Ensures appropriate flow of information among the project partners within this management structure;
Constantly monitors the progress of implementation in order to identify potential risks and deviations that make corrective interventions necessary;
Controls the quality of the work done and the deliverables, outputs produced;
Keeps regular contact and communication with the programme management, the MA/JS on the project level, the NCPs and controllers on the partner level;
Evaluates the results (what has been achieved, how much the results are in line with the original objectives, what the conclusions and the possible followup measures can be).

<color:#ff0000>In case of EUSDR PAC/ DSP call for proposals it is advised that each project partner nominates at least one person in charge of the reporting towards the programme. LP should nominate also the contact person in charge of ensuring the smooth information flow between the project and the MA/ JS.</color>

The section below is applicable only for the classic projects:

Immediately after the project approval the partnership should set up the governance of the project, which in general consists of the following:

Steering Committee (SCOM) (which is the decision making body inside the project). Detailed rules on the functioning of the SCOM are included in the partnership agreement.
Project management team
Quality management structure

The size of the project management team can vary from one project to the other, yet at least 4 key positions should be ensured for the proper implementation:

A. Project manager (PM) can be nominated from the institution of the LP or can be externalised in case no internal resources are available. PM is responsible for:

liaising between the project and the MA/JS;
the overall management and coordination of the project implementation;
daily monitoring of project progress with the support of specific objective and activity leaders, using appropriate monitoring tools, detecting problems and deviations and acting in time to find solutions, manage modifications, if necessary compiling the content parts of the project progress reports and timely submission thereof, achievement of project objectives within the planned period of time and for the quality control of delivered outputs;
keeping close contact with the MA/JS and the project partners.

B. Financial manager (FM) can be nominated from the institution of the LP or can be externalised in case no internal resources are available. An experienced financial manager is vital for the proper financial implementation of the project and for ensuring the timely reimbursement of funds. Therefore, in case the institution does not have the necessary expertise, then externalising these services is highly recommended. FM is responsible for:

permanent monitoring of all financial aspects, including internal management of funds, expenditure, spending rates, budget shifts, etc.;
financial reporting.

C. Communication manager (CM) can be nominated from the institution of the LP or can be externalised in case no internal resources are available. CM is responsible for:

developing and implementing the internal project communication strategy;
defining communication objectives, approaches, activities and key messages to be disseminated;
preparation of information materials and promotional items;
preparation and distribution of newsletters and press releases to identified stakeholders;
coordination of communication within the partnership by setting up internal communication rules and monitoring tools, as well as updating the information on the project section in the DRP website etc.

D. The partnership should set up from the beginning an effective quality assurance management structure. The quality assurance of the project outputs is mandatory for all regular projects approved in the framework of the Danube Region Programme. Without quality validation of the outputs, expenditure cannot be reimbursed. The quality management structure shall consist of experts responsible for proofreading, analysing and reviewing the project outputs (strategies, solutions and pilot actions) from a qualitative point of view. The quality assurance management shall be led by an independent quality assurance manager (QAM) (who can be an internal or externalised expert of the LP/PP organisation in charge of a specific task). The QAM could be supported by a team of (internal and/or external) experts, forming either a quality management board or being individually involved in specific thematic reviews. The programme requires that these experts are independent from the implementation team. The partnership should also agree on internal procedures for the quality management, including follow up of the funding during the checks (e.g. how the partnership would correct /remedy the inconsistencies / information gaps, etc. found during the quality assurance check of the outputs) and measures for correction of the deficiencies.

A QAM bears the responsibility for the information provided in the output quality report. The quality assurance activity should always have a follow up, i.e. all recommendations/findings of the QAM should be taken into account by the partnership and all the actions implemented based on these findings shall be included in the quality report of the specific output. Quality assurance manager is responsible for:

reviewing all the project outputs (strategies, solutions and pilot actions) and providing feedback to the partnership;
ensuring that the findings are included in the final outputs to be submitted to the MA/JS;
validation of the outputs before submission to the MA/JS;
informing the MA/JS about any obstacles/problems encountered during the process.

Implementation manual