The success of a project depends on how well the project management is organized. In GeNEdu project there are several factors which make this project very special and at the same time highlight the importance of project management quality. For example, the project itself is quit big, the budget is almost one million euro (0,84 MEUR), there are six partners who are located in a long distance between each other and the project consist from many work packages and subtasks. The subtasks vary also, for example some packages include research (document analysis, Delphi research), and other packages consist of organizing workshops/courses, developing curricula, adapting new technologies, organizing procurements to build labs. Therefore, it was essential that the first working package should be the preparation of project management. Not only it is important to find the correct form of management structure, but also the fact that all partners have to agree on common working methods used throughout the project. For example, how the communication and interaction is carried out.
The most important task in management of this project is in the hands of the project coordinator (Jamk) who is responsible for coordinating all project activities while providing administrative, financial and technical support to all the partner institutions. It is good that throughout the entire project the project coordinator remained the same which made activities consistent and no management related setbacks occur. There were only few changes/additions in the project team. To ensure the successful implementation of different tasks different teams were formed. The project manager (Jamk) formed its project office to manage the activities and meet project requirements. Each partner institution assigned one person to the Project Management Group (chaired by Jamk) which is the highest decision-making organ responsible for overseeing and assessing the progress and quality results of the project. GeNEdu project consists of tasks and topics related to research and development. To ensure the scientific quality of this project Academic Advisory Board (chaired by Dutch Hanze University of Applied Sciences and consisting of members of other institutions) was established to serve the scientific aims of the project. The quality of the whole project was conducted by Quality Assurance team, Jamk was the leader and Guangzhou Health Science College as the co-leader and named persons from each partner.
During the project span it was noticeable that the engagement of all partners was crucial to overcome different external (COVID-19) and internal challenges. To ensure such kind of active engagement all partner institutions’ were invited to online meetings, and all partners were treated as equal no matter of their position in one or another group (management, quality, academic or other groups). Regular meetings provided the necessary information and knowledge flow that helped to execute all the tasks set in the project without spending too much time to resettle oneself for the project work. I personally learned a lot from participating in GeNEdu project, because I was able to see and experience the way how large budget projects are managed in a successful and effective way.
