Management Committee Meeting Sofia, Bulgaria 21 st September 2016

Transcription

1 COST Action IS1405 Action Title: Building Intrapartum Research Through Health - an interdisciplinary whole system approach to understanding and contextualising physiological labour and birth (BIRTH) Management Committee Meeting Sofia, Bulgaria 21 st September Welcome to participants Professor Soo Downe, Chair of the Action, opened the meeting and welcomed the participants. 2. Verification of the presence of two-thirds of the Participating COST Countries or, if applicable, a Quorum Quorum was established 3. Adoption of agenda The agenda was adopted. 4. Approval of minutes and matters arising of last meeting The minutes were approved. 5. Update from the Action Chair a) Status of Action: The Chair reported that the Action has a new member country, Finland. b) Short Term Scientific Missions (STSM): All STSM reports were accepted for this year and the Management Committee agreed to pay all STSM grants. All reports are available on the website. 6. Update from the Grant Holder: The Action budget was discussed it was noted that once the reimbursement for this meeting was completed and the training school budget finalised the overall budget status would be clearer and this would allow the possibility of increasing the budget for the final meeting of the year in Crete. 7. Update from the COST Association, if a representative is present No representative was present. 8. Monitoring of the Action The chair of the Action noted that she will soon have to go to Brussels to present on the progress of the Action. 1

2 9. Implementation of COST policies on: a) Promotion of gender balance and Early Career Investigators (ECI) It was noted that the Action continues to have more female than male participants, but that this helps to promote and address the more general underrepresentation of women in STEM subjects. The Action has very high numbers of ECI among the participants who are supported by the ECI forum group and the promotion of STSMs. b) Inclusiveness and Excellence It was noted that the Action has representation from a number of COST inclusiveness target counties and that the open access policy acknowledges challenges faced by academics in some of these counties in securing funds for open access publications. A number of the candidates for the forthcoming training school are from inclusiveness target countries. 10. Follow-up of MoU objectives: progress report of working groups All Working Groups presented progress reports. These will be circulated to the Action and uploaded to the website. Actions: Ask Dr Daly to circulate the template she used for presenting her groups objectives/outcomes (MCB to ask DD). Decide on a definitive working Group report template (MCB & SD to act on this) 11. Scientific planning a) Scientific strategy (MoU objectives, GP Goals, WG tasks and deliverables) These were reviewed by the WG leads and included in their presentations detailed above. b) Action Budget Planning The proposed number of STSM for the rest of the Actions were discussed. The following was proposed; 3rd work plan period ( ) 12 STSMs 4th work plan period (2018) 6 STSMs It was agreed that preference would be given to STSMs that linked closely to Working Group objectives. c) Long-term planning (including anticipated locations and dates of future activities) Training school, The meeting discussed plans for a future training school in 2017/2018. Suggestions included; Methods, Obstetric Violence/Disrespect & Abuse, Organisational theory and Implementation science. The meeting agreed that the training school should focus on issues related to how we do research and implement 2

3 change in organisations and provide case studies of places where changes have happened in challenging circumstances (Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal). Possible experts mentioned were Barbara Katz Rothman, Trisha Greenhaugh. It was agreed that the training school would take place in Lucerne, Switzerland with Dr Claudia Meier Magistretti as the Local Organiser. Future meeting locations The meeting discussed a range of options for the location of meetings for the next two years of the Action. After discussion the following locations were agreed by the Committee. Core Group, Working Group, workshop & Management Committee meeting, 6th- 8th March 2017, Crete, Greece, Local organiser Ms Olga Gouni Core Group, Working Group, workshop & Management Committee meeting, 2nd week in September 2017, Florence, Italy, Local Organiser Dr Laura Iannuzzi Training School, Core Group, Working Group and Management Committee Meeting, February 2018, Lucerne Switzerland, Local Organiser, Dr Claudia Meier Magistretti Conference (with or without a formal MC meeting depending on finances at that stage) Hungary September 2018, Local Organiser Erika Schmidt Final Management Committee meeting November/December 2018, Malta Local Organiser Dr Jean Calleja Agius. d) Dissemination planning (Publications and outreach activities) Open Access publications The meeting agreed with the previously circulated criteria for the distribution of funds for open access publications and that the Core Group would be responsible for these decisions. It was also agreed that in order to aid this process applications for funding must be submitted at least one month before each Management Committee meeting. The Management Committee agreed with Core Groups decision to provide funding for Dr Sekulic and colleagues paper. It was agreed that Ms Olga Gouni should submit her paper to the Core Group immediately after this meeting and that the Core Group would vote on her application. Acknowledgement/publication policy The meeting discussed how the Action should be acknowledged in publications. Action: Review the current Action s policy. (Laura Iannuzzi, MCB, SD) Website 3

4 The Meeting agreed that Mr Garry Cook should be paid 500 euro for work on the Action s website as agreed in the work plan/budget. It was agreed that Ms Olga Gouni would be added as administrator to the website. STSM The STSM Committee has proposed to produce an STSM book, similar to the one produced in the last Action (IS0907). The committee also noted the increasing quality of applications and reports. The committee has proposed following up previous STSM candidates to document the impact of their STSM. The committee proposed offering a prize for the best STSM report. Action: STSM committee members State of the Art Book The meeting discussed the need to produce a State of the Art book as detailed in the Vademecum. There was discussion over the format the book should take with 3 options proposed; A book to be produced by COST central office. A book to be produced by a commercial publisher. A book to be produced by an academic publisher There was another proposal that two books are produced one with an academic focus and a second aimed at a more general readership. A book subgroup was proposed led by Olga Gouni Actions: MCB to check details about processes and requirement for the book from the COST office. 12. Requests to join the Action from: a) COST countries b) Institutions in Near Neighbouring Countries, International Partner Countries, and/or Specific Organisations: EU agencies, European RTD Organisation, International Organisations No applications have been received. 13. AOB a) Support for ECI group: It was agreed that the ECI group should be given a designated time to meet at all Action meetings. Action: MCB, SD, RE in planning agenda items for meetings b) Allocating funded places at Action meetings (following Core Group discussion). 4

5 Once all the Management Committee places have been allocated any other places will be distributed thus: 1 All Working Groups must have a minimum of 6 members in attendance, any that do not will be allocated places until this criterion has been met. 2 The ECI lead will then nominate 1 person for funding 3 Any remaining places will be allocated to the WGs (in proportion to the size of the group) and the Working Group leads will decide who to allocate those places to within that group. 14. Location and date of next meeting 6-8 th March 2017 Crete, Greece, Local Organiser Ms Olga Gouni 15. Summary of MC decisions The minutes of the last meeting were approved by the meeting. All STSM reports were accepted for this year and the Management Committee agreed to pay all STSM grants. It was agreed subject to finalisation of the work plan/budget that in 3rd work plan period ( ) there would be 12 STSMs offered and in 4th work plan period (2018) 6 STSMs would be offered. The following meetings locations and local organisers were agreed; Core Group, Working Group, workshop & Management Committee meetings, 6th- 8th March 2017, Crete, Greece, local organiser Ms Olga Gouni. Core Group, Working Group, workshop & Management Committee meeting, 2nd week in September 2017, Florence, Italy, Local Organiser Dr Laura Iannuzzi Training School, Core Group, Working Group and Management Committee Meeting, February 2018, Lucerne Switzerland, Local Organiser, Dr Claudia Meier Magistretti. The meeting agreed with the previously circulated criteria for the distribution of funds for open access publications and that the Core Group would be responsible for these decisions. It was agreed that in order to aid this process applications for funding must be submitted at least one month before each Management Committee meeting. The Management Committee agreed with Core Groups decision to provide funding for Dr Sekulic and colleagues paper. The Management Committee agreed that Ms Olga Gouni should submit her paper to the Core Group immediately after this meeting and that the Core Group would vote on her application. The Meeting agreed that Mr Garry Cook should be paid 500 euro for work on the Action s website as agreed in the work plan/budget. 5

6 The meeting agreed to the principle of allocating funded places at Action meetings as detailed above (13.b). 16. Closing 6