The 1st Annual Meeting of the General Assembly was organised by MHESR (Deputy Co-ordinator) in Cairo, Egypt, from the 9th to 11th February 2014. The Annual Meeting was the occasion to take stock of project activities and results, planning the future as well as having a constructive exchange with the External Advisory Board. The aim of the the Annual Meeting was to take stock of main results and problems encountered and make a detailed plan of the second year main activities.
The three days meeting were organised as follows:
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9 February afternoon: working meeting of the External Advisory Board and meeting of the Project Management Board;
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10-11 February: meeting of the General Assembly (all MedSpring partners and Third Parties), including the External Advisory Board .
Find the pdf version of the event agenda, and just below the exposed version, with the links to the presentations:
Sunday, 9th February 2014 (this session was organized at Sofitel Hotel)
- 16h30 - 19h00 - Joint Project Management Board (only WP Leaders) - External Advisory Board meeting. There is the overview of project main developments and problems encountered by Claudio Bogliotti, the round table of WP Leaders (general comments on the WP under their responsibility, specific problems and achievement, future developments), the discussion and finally the suggestions and recommendations by the members of the External Advisory Board
Monday, 10th February 2014 (Venue: Marriott Hotel Zamalek Plenary room: Aida (Amonasro & Ramfis))
- 09h00 - 09h30 - Registration
- 09h30 - 10h00 - Welcome addresses - Coordinator, Deputy-coordinator / hosting partner, European Commission
- 10h00 - 10h15 - A year after the kick-off-meeting: expectations and recommendations - Fadila Boughanemi (European Commission, DG Research and Innovation)
- 10h15 - 10h45 - Overview of the first year activities and stocktaking of main achievements and problems encountered - Claudio Bogliotti, CIHEAM-IAMB and Zeinab El Sadr,MHESR.
- 10h45 - 11h15 - Open discussion
- 11h30 - 13h30 - WP activities, tasks and deliverables in the second year (WP Leaders and task responsibles) Building on 1st year achievements and problems encountered, Work Package leaders will shortly present the second year work plan, providing an overview of new tasks and deliverables and links with other WPs as planned by the DoW. WP leaders could ask task responsible to shortly present the rational tasks under their responsibility. All WP presentation should not last more than 15 minutes. Each WP presentation will be followed by 5 minutes discussion. The discussion should trigger partners confirm or express interest in contributing to the presented tasks. Please find the presentations for WP1, WP2, WP3, WP4, WP6, WP7, WP8, WP9.
- 15h00 - 17h00 - WP activities, tasks and deliverables in the second year (WP Leaders and task responsibles)
- 17h30 - 18h00 - Financial aspects - Marinella Giannelli and Severio de Santis, CIHEAM-IAMB.
- 18h00 - 18h15 - Introduction to the second day work plan
- 20h00 - Social dinner
Tuesday, 11th February 2014 (Venue: Marriott Hotel Zamalek Plenary room: Aida (Amonasro & Ramfis))
- 9h00 - 11h00 - First round parallel working groups; three parallel working groups are organized:
i) EMEG, innovation and capacity building (WP1, WP2, WP5, WP7)
ii) AGORA and the dialogue with civil society, dissemination (WP1, WP2, WP3, WP4, WP5)
iii) Support to policy and institutional dialogue-synergies, observatory (WP1, WP6, WP8, WP9)
Participants are expected to propose ideas and ways on how to increase scope and impact of project tasks foreseen in the second year, with the aim of increasing project impact. Expected outcomes 1st round: Needs and strategic objectives. Tasks and their method, concept, timing, working groups.
- 11h30 - 13h30 - Second round parallel working groups
Expected outcomes 2nd round: building on first round, preparing a detailed GANTT of second year, determining the role / responsibility of partners, suggestions for new activities not foreseen by the DoW.
- 15h30 -16h30 - Plenary session
Presentation by the working groups and open discussion:
- EMEG, Innovation and Capacity Building.
- AGORA and the civil society and improving links / dialogue with web community.
- Policy / institutional dialogue and synergies.
- 16h30 - 17h30 - Suggestions and recommendations by the External Advisory Group and discussion.
- 17h30 - Conclusions
The second day was devoted to work in separate groups. The Working groups had the objectives to help planning the second year activites while developing ideas/proposals on how MedSpring could be more effective with regard to problems identified in the first year and expected impact. The Working Groups addressed the following subjects:
- EMEG, Innovation and Capacity Building (Rapporteur / facilitator: Moez Jebara)
- AGORA and the civil society and improving links / dialogue with web community (Rapporteur / facilitator: Irene Costantini)
- Policy/institutional dialogue and synergies (Rapporteur / facilitator: Hamid El Zoheiry)
The Working Groups ensured interactions among all partners and with the members of the External Advisory Board and considered the voice of partners who, for different reasons, did not have the opportunity to engage or fully integrate in the project during the first year.
