QUEST Kick-off Meeting Final Announcement

Dear QUEST partners and kick-off participants,

please find below further information on the upcoming kick-off meeting. Please read this mail carefully as some preparations are necessary to make this meeting a success!

1. Logistics
2. Programme
3. Partner presentation template
4. Supervisory and Science Boards
5. Description of Work
6. Consortium Agreement

Looking forward to seeing you in Kappel!

Regards
Heiner and Greta

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1. Logistics

Transfer Zurich airport – Monastery Kappel
There will be 3 shuttle-buses at Zurich airport on Wednesday 10th. The first one will leave at 08:30, the second one will leave at 11:15 and the third one will leave at 12:00. Should there be any change in the timetable, it will be notified on the QUEST web page:
https://quest.geophysik.uni-muenchen.de/events/kick-off/getting-to-monastery-kappel

Meeting point will be the Information Desk at Arrival 1. For more details about Zurich airport, click on the following link:
http://www.zurich-airport.com/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-315/

People arriving at Arrival 2 are kindly requested to reach the Information Desk in Arrival 1 in order to be picked up by the local QUEST drivers, Miss Julia Schäfer and Mr. Andrea Colombi. Their mobile phone numbers will be communicated to you soon.

Venue
The meeting point for all participants will be the Monastery Kappel:
http://www.klosterkappel.ch/content/index_ger.html
Meeting will start Wed 2pm, optional lunch from 12:00 a.m.
Those of you who wish to have lunch at the monastery on Wednesday, February 10th as well as on Friday, February 12th, are kindly requested to confirm it to Greta by no later than Monday, February 1st.

Accommodation
accommodation costs 160 CHF per night, a double room in All participants will be accommodated at the Monastery Kappel in single or double rooms as indicated in the pre-registration form. A single room in full boardfull board accommodation costs 130 CHF per night.

Meals
All lunches and dinners will be prepared by the staff of the Monastery Kappel. On Thursday, February 11th, conference dinner will be a typical Swiss speciality.

Registration Fee:
A registration fee of 100 € will be charged and reimbursed through the project.

2.. Meeting Programme
We have updated the programme on the web pages.
https://quest.geophysik.uni-muenchen.de/events/kick-off/programme
If you prefer any changes (e.g., presenting authors) let us know ahead of the meeting.

3. Partner presentation template
We feel it is important - in particular for the new members - to have a brief intro to all members. Therefore, we expect short presentations (5-10mins) of the partner institutions (incl. associates). An optional powerpoint template is attached. Please follow roughly the items/questions raised in it but you are welcome to extend/minimize on those. The attached example is a draft for the LMU contribution. We are a large network thus a considerable number of presentations. Please focus on what of you/your institution is RELEVANT FOR QUEST. We will tightly stick to the 10 min window. Try to leave a minute or two for questions. You help us if you mail us your short presentations before the meeting! IF that is not possible, please provide them by memory stick BEFORE 13:30 on Wednesday.

4.. Supervisory and Science Board
The Union has imposed an administrative structure that includes a Supervisory and a Science Board. The proposition is that all QUEST lead scientists (or representatives) are members of both boards. In addition, both industrial associates (MicroseismicInc and IBM) are admitted as well as other associated partners. Details will be discussed at the open constituting meeting of both boards on Thursday during the kick-off meeting.

5. Description of Work and Work Packages
The so-called Annex I (Description of Work, DoW) is – in terms of the scientific work to be carried out – the most important document of the contract. Please note that much of the level of detail (like the number of milestones, deliverables, distribution of person-months per task, etc) was imposed by the Union. Within each work package (WP) several tasks are defined. At least roughly we can take the DoW as a guideline for the Work package breakout sessions. But we are free to define more ambitious goals during the discussions. PLEASE READ THE DOW BEFORE THE MEETING! Please check the programme whether you are chairing one of the WP breakout sessions. Even though for each WP we will provide some guiding questions/tasks, please try to put some thoughts into the science/methodology problems that should be addressed within QUEST over the next years.

6. Consortium Agreement CA
The Union strongly (strongly, strongly … their wording) urges us to sign a so-called consortium agreement. This is a document that is signed BETWEEN THE PARTNERS and has no legal link to the Union. The aim of this agreement is to define the rules of cooperation within the partners and in particular IP issues with our industrial partners. It also provides guidelines how to handle the project in case there are problems (partners leaving the project, defaulting partners). However, in this case (with industrial partners), the recommendation is to sign such an agreement. In that sense it is up to the industrial partners to look at the appendices and decide what kind of “background” etc. you want to have included. ALL PARTNERS PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT SO THAT WE CAN DISCUSS IT AT THE BOARD MEETING. You may want your legal admins to have a look at it as well.

The key questions to the industrial partners is whether any "background" needs to be specifically include or excluded (Attach 1 +2). Otherwise the relevant sections only concern admin structure.


We will provide hardcopies of the complete QUEST contract and the CA for each partner at the meeting.