Role and contribution
ALMA Consulting Group is a private consultant company based in France with subsidiaries in Belgium, Spain and Israel. The Innovation department has specialized since 1994 in: i) the setting up of European projects with an experience of more than 250 proposals under FP5 in all technical areas covered by the thematic programmes, ii) the administrative and financial management with an experience of more than 100 (75 in FP5) European projects. The 45 consultants of the department are all engineers and/or PhD graduates with complementary training in marketing, technology transfer, project management. For nine years, ALMA has developed specific and original knowledge and methodologies in the management of partnership for R&D projects. A transnational partnership is a very specific way to work and exchange, with which most of the laboratories , industries and SMEs are not trained to cope. ALMA proposes them adapted solutions. In particular, ALMA supports the consortium in: i) the setting-up of technical, administrative and financial reports according to EC requirements; ii) technical and project committees; iii) the communication policy between and in-between participants; iv) the management policy and setting-up of appropriate rules (through a consortium agreement or bilateral agreements); v) the strategic orientation of the project with respect to the objectives of the project and interest of the participants. The strategy of a Partner may change in the course of the project, it is important to take care that the changing strategy of one Partner does not affect the whole project and its objectives.
ALMA will be in charge of the Day-to-day management of the VIZIER project including more particularly Administrative and Financial management activities, animation of the consortium, maintenance of the web-based communication platform. The people involved in the VIZIER project are: Luc Ragon who has been working at ALMA Consulting Group for 7 years, first as a consultant for different aspects related to European R&D projects (setting up and management of European projects), then as a manager of the Projects Coordination Team. As a consultant, he has in particular been supporting coordinators in the management of their projects within the FP4 & FP5 (10 projects coordinated in total). As Manager of the Projects Coordination Team, he is working with 15 persons trained and experienced in Management of trans-national research projects. Ségolène Arnoux who has been working in ALMA Consulting Group for two years, first as a Consultant in the setting up of European Project and then in the management of European project. She has been supporting coordinators in the management of 7 projects within FP5 (RTD, Accompanying Measure and CRAFT), Key action Quality of Life. Ségolène Arnoux has one year post-graduate diploma in "Management for Scientific projects", and a master’s degree in Molecular biology. Actively involved at ALMA Consulting Group for almost two years, Benjamin Questier is Consultant Project Leader also specialised in Quality of Life projects management. He is assisting several consortia with the management and administrative follow-up of RTD and CRAFT projects within FP5. Benjamin Questier has a Bachelor honours degree in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology (Université Louis Pasteur (Fr) & Lehigh University (USA)) and a Masters of International Industrial Project management.
ALMA Lyon, FR
