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Model procedures for co-operation and coordination

Generell approach for developing model procedures

Major aim of ERA-NET TRANSPORT is to create a framework for joint European transport research policy. Work Package 1 delivers model procedures and guidelines (rules) for coordination and cooperation between transport research programmes on the multilateral level.
The workplan consists of following tasks:

Develop model procedures for setting up and implementing joint activities across transport research programmes
Test, monitore and refine the model procedures as part of a learning process
Provide best practice information to Member/Accession States

Preparation tasks: Generate a knowledge base

Different analyses regarding the key actors, the institutional landscapes, the political cooperation processes and the legal and administrative barriers of current transport research policy have been carried out. That overview on existing transport research policy coordination and cooperation activities at a regional, national and multinational level as well as the comparative analysis of ongoing multilateral transport research programming practices will form the basis developing model procedures.
As a structural element for his analysis the model of the policy cycle was used. The policy process concerning actions in the transport research policy sector is illustrated along the different stages of a policy cycle for all partner countries.

Figure 1: The policy cycle model

Figure 2: Example diagram of key-players in transport related research of Austria

The result illustrated, that there are structurally quite similar policy regimes regarding national research programming and funding practices, but varying policy procedures (governance mechanisms) due to different political cultures behind.
In the questionnaire survey national representatives were asked for their estimations on barriers of trans-national research policy cooperation (Deliverable 1.2.). One important result was that legal barriers for cooperation at the transport research program level are less critical than expected. From a legal standpoint there are several opportunities for trans-national research policy cooperation and transport research funding activities. Barriers are more serious regarding bureaucratic rules of public administrations and the political legitimation of public funding budgets.

First set of model procedures for cooperation

The conclusions from the analyses of the institutional landscapes, barriers for co-operation and a benchmarking of co-operation practices provided the basis to develop model procedures and guidelines for coordination and cooperation in transport research. A first set of model procedures is developed for all levels of coordination and cooperation, such as

exchange of information,
project clustering,
joint projects and
joint research programme coordination/integration.

Due to the experienced differences in policy procedures and in political cultures of the countries a strongly deliberative approach of ERA-NET TRANSPORT according to the open method of co-ordination (OMC) has been followed. Therefore, only a simple three-phase organizational model has been introduced, to set co-operation into practice in so called „Action Groups“ (thematically orientated group to work out a joint action in transport research policy co-ordination between two or more countries) on a “trial & error” basis and gain first experiences with model procedures, before refined procedures will be introduced.

Testing, monitoring & refining model procedures

Both the result of the survey on barriers for trans-national cooperation as well as first practical experiences from the Action Groups pointed out, that barriers for the introduction of inter-governmental research policy cooperation are not really critical at the policy formulation stage. As well from the legal as from an administrative point of view there are no crucial barriers for cooperation and therefore risks for the failure of joint actions. The barriers are more serious at the policy determination stage, where negotiations on strategic objectives and shared financial budgets have to be achieved. As main constraint for the cross-national coordination of national research support activities the following hindrances can be summarized:

lack of personal and financial resources and political patronage in the own national context,
dissimilar bureaucratic cultures, while governance and programme management styles are quite similar,
various financial resource allocation practices due to the various
institutional backgrounds and time schedules,
different stages of the addressed national research programmes and unclear national strategic interests for coordination,
missing process descriptions and support tools for the action group process and with that an unclear pace of progress.

Demand for more precise task description and refined model procedures have been identified. To provide an improoved guidance for the Action Group to prepare joint actions a classical 4-stage team-building model has been introduced and related to the policy cycle model.

Figure 3: Organizational model and process descriptions for Action Group in relation to the policy cycle model

This model does not only assist and better guide the work process in the action groups but as well support the monitoring exercise. The splitting up of the working process in the action groups in adequate start/end tasks allows to relate it to the different phases of the team-building process. The grade of progress in the action groups can be measured along this process and performance and success criteria can be distinguished.

As a next Step the process model will be applied to the Action Groups. Actual experiences out of the group will help to refine the norming and performing stage in the second monitoring report, resulting in a comprehensive set of rules.

Reports

The following report have been worked out in the described area. They can be retrieved from the "results & publications" section on this website:

"Overview of research programming and cooperation mechanism"
"Analyses of barriers for cooperation and development of an initial proposal of cooperation procedures"
"Benchmark of practices and multilateral cooperation in transport research programs and policy"
„Monitoring Report 1 First experiences with applying model procedures“.