Officially launched in October 2008, INESS is a European project co-funded by the European Commission and coordinated by UIC.
The INESS Steering Board met on 16 September at UIC, Paris. Chairman Andy Doherty (Network Rail) opened the meeting by extending a warm welcome to participants, and in particular to a new member who has replaced a former colleague from the group Bombardier Transportation (BT).
The main objectives of the meeting included: making a number of decisions regarding deliverables and milestones; ensuring coherence between the project activities and the work plan; checking to see whether the project was running according to the established time and budget; and reviewing the quality of the work being carried out within the various work packages.
Emmanuel Buseyne, INESS Project Manager, and Richard Vaux from ALMA Consulting Group began by reporting on the progress made over the course of the first year since the launch of INESS in October 2008. This included details on the main decisions due to be taken at this stage, in particular the deadlines to be respected with regard to the approval and submission to the European Commission of the technical deliverables, milestones and activity reports. The PM and Mr Vaux went on to explain the Commission’s assessment procedure, adding that the project will continue to receive funding if all reports and deliverables are approved.
The meeting continued in the afternoon with a discussion on the situation regarding the review and approval of the deliverables and milestones, some of which had already been reviewed at the most recent PMC-TAB meeting, while others were in the process of being reviewed and awaiting validation by the SB members. The debate on interest/observer groups resulted in a unanimous decision on having a policy whereby only project member groups should be allowed observer and access rights. The meeting ended with the latest news from the communications front: the INESS “bulletin board”. Released in July this year, the document was intended to serve as a mini-newsletter with the aim of providing members with up-to-date information on the latest activities within the project. Members of the Steering Board (and potentially workstream leaders) were encouraged to make a contribution to future editions if they so wished.
INESS is currently in its 11th month following the official kick-off meeting in October 2008 attended by 80 participants including the European Commission, which is co-funding the three-year project.
Communications update:
– An INESS brochure and flyer have recently been released, giving a general overview of what the project is about and how it is organised
– Our website is constantly being updated: visit us at www.iness.eu
– The next Steering Board meeting is due to be held on 5 November 2009 at UIC Brussels
– The next General Assembly is due to be held on 16 December 2009
