Third Annual Meeting 3 Second Annual Report —

Third Annual Meeting 3 Second Annual Report - breach of contract Deadline for the delivery: 15/12/06 Sent to Brussels: 14/12/06, but incomplete! This is a breach of contract!

Third Annual Meeting 3 Second Annual Report - breach of contract Submission of documents to Commission

Third Annual Meeting 3 Second Annual Report - breach of contract Submission of documents to Commission Scientific part Same as last year - wrong / incomplete / no information Financial part • 15 partners delivered financial forms in time • Last partner sent form 22/02/07 (>2 months after deadline). Comment from the Commission 16/04/07 “a delay of milestones is not acceptable without significant efforts to overcome the problem…”

Third Annual Meeting 3 Second Annual Report - breach of contract Response to feedback from Commission Scientific part: a few questions, answered 26/04/07 Financial part: Responses to questions / requests from the Commission must be answered with high priority. (see last year’s report) • Urgent emails sent to 13 partners 24/04/07. • After 5 weeks, answers from four partners were still pending. • Answer sent to Commission 05/06/07 without CYARI, NBGB, Pisa Botanic Garden.

Third Annual Meeting 3 Second Annual Report - breach of contract Response to Commission

Third Annual Meeting 3 Second Annual Report - breach of contract Submission of documents / response to Commission

Third Annual Meeting 3 Second Annual Report - breach of contract 5 “champions” and 7 “black sheep” The next payment is still blocked FOLLOW OUR INSTRUCTIONS! IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEM please, please ASK U S!

Third Annual Meeting 4 Audit certificates Submission of audit certificates to Commission • 12 partners delivered audits on time and ‘correct’ • 3 partners delivered audits on time but wrong • 1 partner delivered an audit late but ‘correct’ • 1 partner delivered an audit late and wrong • 2 partners had not delivered an audit by the end of 2006 Response to Commission • 3 partners sent corrections 4 weeks late • 1 partner sent correction >4 weeks late • 3 partners were too late for inclusion with response

Third Annual Meeting 4 Audit certificates Most common mistakes: - using wrong text templates / using text template without deleting irrelevant text - inclusion of VAT - selecting the wrong cost model - costs claimed in 3 documents do not correspond - confusion between EU financial contribution and receipts - 3 reporting periods, not 2. Here again: FOLLOW OUR INSTRUCTIONS!

Third Annual Meeting 5 Procedural problems Open communication among network members is the key for a successful project Every partner is important, and everyone is legally obliged to ensure that the project is carried out in accordance with the contract. There is no excuse for not contributing to the project.

Third Annual Meeting 5 Example of procedural problems

Third Annual Meeting 5 Procedural problems • Insufficient response rates + on-going inactivity • “Urgent” emails are really urgent If too busy - send message with a definite response date • Non-responding partners will be named within in the second reminder • If out of office for some time - let us know or ask a colleague to respond on your behalf.

Third Annual Meeting 6 Budget cuts and traffic light system Jean-Emmanuel Faure (project desk officer in Commission): “if the current inactivity continues, and tasks and milestones continue to be missed, there will be budget cuts and potentially other penalties by the Commission, as they are defined in the contract. ” “no contribution to the project – no Commission funds”.

Third Annual Meeting 6 Budget cuts and traffic light system

Third Annual Meeting 6 Budget cuts and traffic light system

Third Annual Meeting 6 Budget cuts and traffic light system

Third Annual Meeting 6 Budget cuts and traffic light system

Third Annual Meeting 7 Finance Financial overview (money allocation and spending, budget) SPEND YOUR BUDGET! The budget is flexible, as long as your activity contributes to the objectives of the project. For example: - hire extra staff - move money from one activity group to another group.

Third Annual Meeting 7 Finance Next advance 434, 879. 42 Euros (based on figures in audit certificates = spending in Year 1 and Year 2) Introduction of new distribution system - see example

Third Annual Meeting 8 ENSCONET II – application for a second project phase Deadline call RI 15/02/08

Third Annual Meeting 11 Associate memberships established with Vienna, Geneva and Luxembourg. “Sleeping” interests from RIBES, REDBAG and the two French networks.

Third Annual Meeting 12 Conferences and meetings attended / to attend When? What? Where? Who? Presentation 16 -20 April 2007 3 rd Global Botanic Gardens Congress Wuhan (PR China) Jonas Müller David Aplin ENSCONET and Target 8 4 -6 June 2007 IX Simpósio da associação iberomacaronésica de jardins botânicos Coimbra (Portugal) 5 -6 June 2007 4 th European Conference on Research Infrastructures Hamburg (Germany) 3 -7 July 2007 East. Cent. Gard II Warsaw/Rogow (Poland) Jerzy Puchalski Jonas Müller Vince Zigmond Maite Delmas ENSCONET Talk and Poster 5 -9 Sept 2007 5 th Planta Europa Conference Cluj-Napoca (Romania) Costa Bonomi Jerzy Puchalski ENSCONET 9 -13 Sept 2007 2 nd International Society for Seed Science Meeting on Seeds and the Environment Perth (Australia) Costas Thanos ENSCONET Poster 10 -17 Sept 2007 12 th OPTIMA meeting Pisa (Italy) Karol Marhold Jaromir Kucera ENSCONET Poster

Third Annual Meeting 14 Dates of next meetings 7 th Management Team Meeting: Cordoba, 16 -18/01/08, including a Mid-term review by the Commission 4 th general meeting Gran Canaria: Dates to be confirmed