Minutes of the 1st RENOIR Executive Board
Thursday 18th July 1996

Present:

Anthony Finkelstein, Network Director,
David Cornwell, Project Officer, Commission of the EC,
Janis Bubenko, Coordinator D,F,No,Sw,
Eric Dubois, Coordinator B,L,Ne,F,
Jose Fiadeiro, Coordinator It,Gr,Sp,P,
Daniel Berry, Coordinator External nodes,
Kevin Ryan, Chair of Research Coordination Committee,
Michael Goedicke, Chair of Research Training Committee,
Silvana Castano (representing Barbara Pernici), Chair of
Infrastructure Committee,
Paul Gough, Chair of Ind. & Tech. Committee,
Stephen Morris, Secretary, City University,
Wolfgang Emmerich, City University

Apologies received from:

Bashar Nuseibeh, Coordinator A,S,Ge,Ir,UK,
Mike Hill

These minutes provide a full record of the Board's decisions, but include only the essential points of information and discussion.

The Director welcomed the Board to its first meeting and the Project Officer greeted the initiation of the fifteenth network of excellence, the fourth under his guidance.

1 GENERAL STRATEGY

1a PRIORITY ACTIVITIES

Under this item the Board agreed the Priority Activities of RENOIR, as follows:

In general all activities associated with RENOIR should either contribute to the useful dissemination of information, or add some specific value to the network. The network will be outward-facing and directed to mutual rather than individual benefit.

Activities meeting these objectives are likely to include

Group interchange between members, for example in meetings, seminars or workshops, on important RE issues,
Visits on a one-to-one basis between members with mutual RE interests,
New initiatives addressing specific issues or topics of importance.

The CEC representative commented that these priorities were in line with the results expected from a review of networks currently being carried out by the Commission. This review, to be finalised and published in September, will note the need to add value at a European level and to be of positive benefit to European industry.

1b ROLE OF CHAIRS & COORDINATORS

The Board heard brief statements from the Chairs of the Research Coordination, Research Training, Industry and Technology Transfer and Infrastructure Committees.

Research Coordination

The EU has the lead in RE and any possible synergy should be exploited. Gaps and overlaps in research need to be identified. As a first step the separate research area coordinators will come together. An experimental domain-specific group may be established to test the desirability of a shift from a research-area approach to a domain-based approach.

Research Training

This area will be closely linked to Research Coordination, with an emphasis on enhancing the on-going work of PhDs and post-docs, avoiding overlaps and supporting a variety of mechanisms, including summer schools, workshops, databases of on-going PhD theses in RE and of RE bibliographies.

Industry and Technology Transfer

Simply getting research and industry together is an important task. An initial objective will be learning from their respective practices, for example by 'project shadowing'. The first initiative planned is a questionnaire survey to identify the availablity, actual use and potential of techniques, tools and methods developed in academia and industry.

Infrastructure

The Network Programme already identifies a variety of infrastructure initiatives which now need to be pursued. These include a web site, both for general information and, possibly, related to specific issues, and a Newsletter.

The Board endorsed the actions proposed by the Chairs and agreed three additional suggestions for action:

Each country coordinator should call together its members to discuss possible local activities, forwarding the results to the Coordination Team at City for appropiate action.
As a basis for committee programmes, the Coordination Team will contact all members to elicit proposals for each particular area. The team will group the results and pass them on to the relevant committee.
In view of the work already done centrally and proposed for other committees, there should be a delay in activating the Infrastructure Committee for the next six months.

1c ANNUAL THEMESThe Board agreed the following statement about The Annual Themes of RENOIR:

It is appropriate to give some general direction to each of the three years of RENOIR activity. This will focus the attention of members and improve the effectiveness of the activities which are supported.

The suggested themes are 'networking', bringing together members to their mutual benefit, 'transfer', maximising the value of work done in both industry and academia, and 'challenges', identifying the future focus for RE activities.

2 FINANCE

2a BUDGET

The Secretary presented an outline of the initial financial situation, based on the table below. He explained that the figures for commitments on lines 1 and 3 represent current estimates of central costs and those on line 2 an estimate of minimal travel costs for the Executive Board and possible plenary meetings.

        Year 1       Year 2          Year 3         Total
Labour [130] (78)  52   [145] (122)  23 [160] (122)  38 [435] (322) 113
Travel  [95] (38)  57   [105]  (38)  67 [145]  (38) 107 [345] (114) 231
Equip.  [55] (45)  10    [30]   (5)  25  [30]   (5)  25 [115]  (55)  60
Other   [27]  (-)  27    [29]   (-)  29  [32]   (-)  32  [88]   (-)  88
Total  [307](161) 146   [309] (165) 144 [367] (165) 202 [983] (491) 492

KEY: [current] (committed) uncommitted in KECU
1KECU = LSt803, IL781, DM1809, Es194.3K, BFr13.3K, Lira1914K, SKr8387

During the discussion that followed two important issues arose, the financial position of non-EU members, in particular Israel and Brazil, and the involvement of RENOIR in income generating activity. The CEC representative agreed to investigate the latest position vis- a-vis non-EU members and the Director agreed to ask Julio Leite to prepare a test application from Brazil. The Director also agreed to report to the next Board meeting about the possibility of setting up a separate legal entity under the auspices of RENOIR, thus facilitating income generation and a move towards self-sustainability.

2b PRINCIPLES FOR FUNDING DISTRIBUTION

The Board agreed the following statement of Principles for Funding Distribution:

Funding will go to specified activities, rather than being divided between members. The amount of funding is such that non-priority activities are unlikely to receive any direct financial support. Any support is subject to a common requirement to provide feedback to all members.

In principle RENOIR will seek to provide funding for:

Travel between member nodes for the purposes of priority activities, plus appropriate and reasonable accommodation costs,
Expenses associated with gatherings, within the EU and principally for members, arranged by members to examine or promote issues of importance,
Sponsorship of RE-related workshops, seminars or conferences in the form of a subsidy for overhead costs in proportion to the size and value of the event,
Funding for members to travel to events with RENOIR sponsorship, but not to events which receive only the symbolic support of RENOIR,
Costs either of 'publication' for original material not otherwise obtainable, or of providing means of easier access to useful material.

All proposals must include a statement explaining:

principal objectives,
specific benefits to RENOIR and assistance in achieving its objectives,
cost estimates at a level of detail suited to the amount of funding being sought and the size of project,
willingness to accept partial funding.

2c DECISION MAKING

The Board agreed the following Procedures for Funding Decisions:

Proposals for expenditure less than 1200 ECU and fitting within agreed priorites and policies to be decided centrally by the Director.
Other proposals to be judged by the Director and a nominee of Board, normally the relevant Chair or Coordinator.
Proposals with policy implications to be referred to all Board members for their advice.
All Board members to be informed automatically of all decisions made under (1), (2) and (3) above.

2d INITIAL BIDS FOR RESOURCES

The Board agreed that, in view of its preceding decisions and the lack of detail in many of the initial bids, that no formal decisions should be made regarding these bids and that all should be subject to the requirements and arrangements set out under 2b and 2c above. The following bids are affected:

Bashar Nuseibeh, Imperial College: Travel to four locations in US (one a member)
Bashar Nuseibeh, Imperial College: Non-specific collaboration with BCS RESG
Stephen SHIRLAW, GEC Alsthom Transport: Dissemination of results of REAIMS project
Neil Maiden, City University: Support for BCS RESG RE-Day Events Feb 97
Neil Maiden, City University: Specific workshop proposal
Neil Maiden, City University: Visit between members (Sorbonne to City)
Neil Maiden, City University: Visit from US (non-member)
Sjaak Brinkkemper, Unversiteit Twente: Sponsorship of Method Engineering '96
Peter Wright, York University: Specific workshop proposal for York
Klaus Pohl, University of Aachen: Visit between members (Aachen to City)
QSS Ltd.: Workshop proposal 'A framework for industrial application of requirements'
George Spanoudakis, City University: Sponsorship for Viewpoints Workshop at SIGSOFT 96
Anthony Finkelstein, City University: Travel to member in US
Olly Gotel, City University: Travel to member in US
Michael Goedicke, University of Essen: Visit between members (Essen to York)
Michael Goedicke, University of Essen: Travel to Austin and San Francisco

2e BUDGET REALLOCATION

The Board agreed to delay discussion of any resource reallocation, as allowed by the network contract, until the next Board Meeting.

3 MEMBERSHIP

The Secretary reported that all existing members will be sent a letter, accompanied by a copy of the contract between City and the CEC, outlining their obligations and requesting a formal committment to comply with all necessary requirements. This letter will be in a form agreed with the CEC representative.

3a ADDITIONS

Nine organisations have expressed an interest in joining and have been mailed the pro-forma completed by the founding members.

TXT Ingegneria Informatica, Milano
S.W.I.F.T. s.c., La Hulpe, Belgium
Telia Engineering AB, Farsta, Sweden
University of Zurich, Dept. of Computer Science (*)
Universidad de Sevilla, Dep. de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informaticos
ASI-CNR, Roma
Universidade do Minho, Grupo de Sistemas de Informacao
RWTUEV Anlagentechnik GmbH, Essen
University of Glamorgan, Dept. of Computer Studies(*)
University of Lancaster, Cooperative Systems Engineering Group

Two organisations (*) had returned all the necessary information at the time of the meeting.

3b DELETIONS

The Secretary reported that one organisation, BIM in Belgium, has neither confirmed its interest nor provided the necessary registration information. The Board agreed that it should no longer be treated as a member.

3c PRINCIPLES & CRITERIA FOR MEMBERSHIP

The Board agreed the following Principles and Criteria for Membership :

The Network Programme sets out the criteria for membership (Section 5.2). In addition to the factual information and profile required of members, each should be asked:

What will they bring with them and add to the network ?
What do they expect to get from the network ?

Local coordinators will also be asked to give their views on both these questions. On the basis of all the information available the Director will make a recommendation to the Board. Because of their potential value and low representation, there will be a presumption in favour of new industrial partners.

The Board agreed that the procedure above should be followed for all future members, including all those currently interested excepting the University of Zurich, which the Board agreed should be admitted immediately.

4 FUTURE MEETINGS

4a EXECUTIVE BOARD

The Board agreed that the next meeting should be on Friday 8th November 1996, at City University.

The Director agreed that a calendar of events would be prepared centrally and displayed on the web site.

4b PLENARY SESSIONS

The board agreed that the nature, constituency and funding implications of plenary meetings are important outstanding issues, which should be considered again at the next meeting.

Last up-date: 30 July 1998

Minutes of the 1st RENOIR Executive Board Thursday 18th July 1996