ISO 9001 2000 and AUTH Research Committee THE

ISO 9001: 2000 and AUTH Research Committee THE ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI Christina Besta, Chief Executive Officer of Research Committee Nikolas Georgiadis, Manager of quality assurance Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 1

THE ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI The largest University in Greece § 60. 000 Students § 2. 400 Academic staff (teaching – research) § 2. 100 Technical and administrative staff § 42 Departments into 12 Faculties Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 2

THE ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI v Carries out § 1. 500 Research and Technological § Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities Development RTD Projects In the scientific areas of: environment informatics telecommunications technologies for industry transport biotechnology biomedicine and health agriculture, forestry and fisheries education and languages history and archaeology social and economic sciences 3

The research funding Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 4

The Human Potential v 1. 340 out of 2. 400 members of the teaching and research staff participate in RTD projects v 12. 000 external co-operators, scientists and technicians have been employed in the last 3 years Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 5

What is the Research Committee (RC)? It is an academic institution for the management of research and related activities within the University Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 6

The mission of the Research Committee The Research Committee serves all specific needs of the research activities produced within and by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, by: v. Designing and implementing research policies v. Allocating and managing external funding v. Facilitating synergy between research and teaching Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 7

What is a funded project? v A funded project is a well-planned scientific activity, characterized by: § a specific discipline § a well defined objective § a set timetable § a certain methodology § a cost break down § an expected result Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 8

Project Types v Research & Technological v Educational v Training v Consulting and provision of scientific services Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 9

The RC Project Management cycle v The stages § Project planning - compose the proposal – submission § Evaluation of the proposal - approval by the funding agency or organization § Implementation of the project § Evaluation of the results - suggestions for their exploitation Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 10

Administrative structure a. The Research Committee v v b. The Secretariat It is the authority responsible for mapping out the research policy of the University as well as other relevant activities It is the authority responsible for the approval and allocation of the funds for the implementation of the research projects v Supervision of the accounting and management turnover of the special account v Implementation and administrative processing of the Research Committee’s decisions The qualified legaltoframework for managing research It is the authority draw up the annual financial and scientific planning and in Greek Universities v Suggestions and cooperation on issues relative reports to the operation and development of the account It is the authority in charge safeguard the (Called “Theto Special Account special of Research Funds”, operation and the development of the special a. k. a. “Special Account”) account Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 11

Administrative structure a. The Research Committee v v It is the authority responsible for mapping out the research policy of the University as well as other relevant activities It is the authority responsible for the approval and allocation of the funds for the implementation of the research projects It is the authority qualified to draw up the annual financial and scientific planning and reports It is the authority in charge to assure the right operation and the development of the Special Account Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities b. The Secretariat v Supervision of the accounting and management turnover of the special account v Implementation of the Research Committee’s decisions v Proposals Submission relative to the operation and development of the Special Account 12

Organizational chart of the Secretariat of the Research Committee Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 13

The Business Plan v Planning the targets and actions of the next three years for the implementation of the VISION research strategy STRATEGY BUSINESS PLAN Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 14

Synthesis and selection of a strategy Opportunities (+) Strategy Internal environment Weaknesses (-) Strengths (+) External environment Threats (-) Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 15

What is the research strategy? v The major strategic objective is § Excellence v At the core of the research strategy lies the promotion of Quality of the research activity Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 16

A Strategy for Quality of the RC v The Research Committee succeed to receive the ISO 9001: 2000 Certificate in November 2002 v 16 research laboratories are in the process of obtaining an ISO quality certificate Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 17

The quality management system in RC The development of the Quality Management System was based on: 1. Mapping the current situation 2. Identifying the weaknesses 3. Establishing the Quality policy 4. Setting the objective goals of Quality, and 5. Identifying the processes that rule the operation of the organization and the proper evaluation of these processes. Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 18

RC Quality Policy The major ideas behind the Quality Policy of the Research Committee are: v The creation of an attraction point for Funding Agencies or Institutions v The deployment of new activities in the field of research and vexploitation of research results Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 19

RC’s Quality Policy implemented at three parallel levels: v 1 st level: Operational improvement v 2 nd level: Customer satisfaction v 3 rd level: expanding our activities Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 20

RC Quality Objectives The Quality Objectives promote the “three year” business objectives, as stated in the Business Plan that materializes the research strategy Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 21

The quality operation of the Research Committee The systems and their targets Quality management system Assuring quality in management service Transaction system One stop service Information system Providing services anytime & anywhere Administrative-financialaccounting management system Legal base in management service Customer management system Customer Satisfaction Integration, flexibility and quality assurance in research management activities Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 22

Towards our Quality Policy We confronted the mentality of the traditional public sector; therefore: Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 23

Towards our Quality Policy v We gave emphasis on human resources § Staff training § Staff evaluation § Work delegation v We gave emphasis on the work environment and the use of technology Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 24

Towards our Quality Policy v We gave emphasis on developing a system of procedures and guidelines, covering all organizational tasks v We gave emphasis on the demands, problems and needs of our § Customers and § Collaborators Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 25

Towards our Quality Policy v We paid special attention upon: § Creating the final link of every procedure chain, thus assuring production of results § Appointing owners to every procedure § Measuring every task, according to its linked objective § Establishing performance indices, that where ranked in a mechanism that measures the total performance of the Quality Management System Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 26

What did we achieve through ISO ? v Transforming traditional work culture into a culture of quality v Obtaining a constantly evolving Organization; strength against external changes Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 27

Future Objectives the added value of the Quality Management System’s operation, and comparing it with the old system v Measuring Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 28

Thank you for your attention Sharing Best Practice amongst European universities 29