Stakeholder engagement plan
Approved: 2016-09-29 by the NeIC board.
This page describes NeIC's stakeholder engagement plan, which describes how NeIC engages with stakeholders at different capacities and categories. This map is based on the NeIC stakeholder map and is itself the base for the development of the NeIC stakeholder engagement monitoring and development activity, which will be put into operation during 2017. This work, and the NeIC way of interacting with stakeholders, are described in the NeIC Stakeholder engagement manifesto.
The processes proposed here are underpinned by NeIC policies on openness, information, shared personnel information, and working routines.
Summary
The table below is arranged according to the NeIC stakeholder map, broken down into stakeholder categories and ranked by decreasing priority as either a strategic or a tactical priority. Strategic and tactical priorities are not exclusive and only the primary priority is listed in the table.
The #Strategic engagements are characterized by high level interactions with NeIC on long term goals and directions within the appropriate international, organizational and financial envelopes. The #Tactical engagements are much more wide ranging in terms of content and inclusion of personnel with a range of skills and backgrounds. In order to develop relations with stakeholders in all their capacities as defined in the NeIC stakeholder map, NeIC carries out the majority of the tactical stakeholder engagements through existing connections in ongoing activities. NeIC also has a number of #Cross-cutting engagements (such as the bi-annual NeIC conferences) that engages stakeholders across many categories of the map.
This table shows the identified NeIC stakeholders according to the NeIC by category, with their contributions to NeIC’s capacity for value creation, and a ranking by priority for the two types of stakeholders. This table also shows the overlap with the other three focus areas in NeIC, Pooling Competences (FA-1), Resource Sharing (FA-2) and Secure Long term Funding (FA-3). The final column of the table indicates the planned means and frequency of engagement (yearly, 6-monthly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily). The interactions with the different stakeholder categories and the identified key stakeholders therein are described in more detail in the text below, directly accessible using the links in the table.
| Stakeholder category | Stakeholders | Contributions to NeIC’s capacity for value creation |
Strategic Priority / Focus Area |
Tactical Priority / Focus Area |
Engagement Means and Frequency (y, 6, q, m, w, d) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategic partners | DeIC, CSC, RHnet, Sigma2, SNIC |
Strategy development, Expertise, Guidelines, National contact points, Project requests, Resource allocations, Co-funding |
Highest FA-1, FA-2, FA-3 |
Board (q), Provider forum (q), Visits (y) | |
| Hosting organization | NordForsk | Administrative support, Legal framework Co-funding |
High FA-3 |
Directorial meetings (m) | |
| Funders | NOS-N, National research councils | Funding stability | Medium FA-3 |
Reports and publications (y) | |
| Policy level | Nordic council of ministers, National ministries |
Image building, Public outreach, Political support, Funding stability |
Low FA-3 |
NordForsk board (y) | |
| Employees | Staff and project personnel | Development of human capital, Collaborative relations, Production of results |
Highest FA-1 |
XT (w, f2f: m, f2f-x: q), PM (w), Team (w, all-hands: y, site visits: y), All-hands (y), One-on-ones (y) | |
| Co-investing collaborators | Employing institutions and Project partners, typically academic HPC centers or Nordic user communities. | Collaborative development and problem solving, Services, Project personnel, NeIC staff, Project requests, Infrastructure resources, Project implementation, Co-funding |
High FA-1, FA-2 |
SG (q), y | |
| Non co-investing collaborators | Open source projects, National resource allocation committees |
Project personnel, Collaborative development and problem solving, Infrastructure resources, Project implementation, Image building |
High FA-1, FA-2 |
y | |
| Users | National and international research communities (eg. CERN/LHC experiments) and infrastructures, End users |
Loyalty and reputation, Use cases |
High FA-1, FA-2 , FA-3 |
RG (q), CERN (q), y | |
| General public | Humanity, Prospective employees and users |
Loyalty and reputation | Medium FA-3 |
m | |
| International e-Infrastructure communities | International e-infrastructure provider organizations, International e-infrastructure user communities (eg. WLCG) |
Reputation and image building, Comparison, Common goals and interests |
Medium FA-1 |
y | |
| Service providers | Network connectivity, Training, Legal counsel, Event organization Collaboration technologies, Open source projects |
Services | Low FA-1 |
y |
Strategic engagements
Strategic partners
Priority: Strategic, Highest.
Stakeholders: DeIC, CSC, RHnet, Sigma2, SNIC.
Engagement summary:
- Board (q),
- Provider forum (q),
- Visits (y)
The strategic partners are the national e-infrastructure provider organizations who constitute the governing board of NeIC. The strategic partners have multiple roles related to NeIC. In particular, the national e-Infrastructure representatives to the NeIC board are part of the NeIC organisation. NeIC needs to interact closely with the strategic partners on multiple or even all levels, in a variety of modes and frequencies. The engagements at the strategic level however are primarily through the representatives on the board with additional interactions for financial sustainability.
The strategic partners have the following roles in relation to NeIC:
- (Strategic) As board members they govern NeIC at the strategic level, and act as ambassadors of NeIC in their home organizations. These interactions are described in the following governance documents:
- (Tactical) As representatives of national e-infrastructure, they are customers and (potential) contract partners in NeIC projects, and are in this respect in the category of "co-investing collaborators", high priority. In this role, they have a natural responsibility to promote the interest of their national organisation.
- (Tactical) As staff in NeIC projects, category "Employees", highest priority.
Roles 1) and 2) above may create conflicts of interest (CoI). In particular, national interest may (in perhaps rare circumstances) conflict with NeIC’s interests as expressed by the NeIC strategy (or majority of the NeIC board). The NeIC director and the board chairman need to have a constant awareness of potential CoIs and initiate concrete CoI discussions as part of the board’s routine business. Consequently, the board may agree to move certain issues out from the boardroom, even though the issue as such may be of wide concern to national provider organisations. Such issues should rather be discussed between NeIC XT and the national providers in their role 2) above.
Hosting organization
Priority: Strategic, High.
Engagement summary:
- Regular contact between NeIC director and NordForsk director. Participation in NordForsk board meetings on request.
NordForsk
NordForsk is the hosting organisation for NeIC. The NordForsk board provides the mandate for the NeIC board. NordForsk will be interested in NeIC as an instrument to support its strategy (Nordic cross-border research cooperation, Nordic research infrastructure cooperation, implementation of relevant parts of the Nordic eSience Action Plan 2.0, impact of Nordic research and research infrastructure cooperation). For activities that support the NordForsk strategy NeIC may attract funding from NordForsk. In this role, NordForsk is seen a "Funder" (strategic category, medium priority).
The NeIC director reports to the NordForsk director. Funding proposals that support the NordForsk strategy are discussed with the NordForsk administration and may be put forward to the NordForsk board at the discretion of the NordForsk director.
Several NeIC activities have contact points with on-going NordForsk initiatives. NeIC XT coordinators and project managers have tactical engagements with these initiatives whenever it seems natural.
Funders
Priority: Strategic, Medium.
Stakeholders: National research councils, NOS-N.
The funders are primarily the national research councils Academy of Finland, Research Council of Norway, The Swedish Research council, and to a somewhat lesser degree the Ministry of Higher Education and Research in Denmark and Rannis in Iceland. The situation varies across countries, so consequently most of the interactions need be managed separately. The Nordic Co-operation Board of Natural Sciences (NOS-N) has an expressed interest in research infrastructure and has previously facilitated evaluations of NDGF.
NeIC’s mode of engagement with a national funder need to be synchronized with the respective national provider (board representative).
NOS-N
Engagement summary:
- Upon request
NOS-N is a collaborating body for Nordic research councils that finance research in the natural sciences.
National research councils
Priority: Strategic, Low.
Stakeholders: The Danish agency for science, technology and innovation; Rannís, The academy of Finland, The research council of Norway, Swedish Research Council.
Engagement summary:
- Reports, publications (y)
- Indirect contacts through or in collaboration with the strategic partners (y).
NeIC receives parts of its funding from the national research councils. In the future, this funding may be channeled through the Strategic Partners. NeIC formally engages with the national research councils primarily through the Strategic Partners. The national research councils will be interested in NeIC activities as illustrations and success stories of the Strategic Partners engaging in successful Nordic collaboration. Dissemination of our activities should therefore also be tailored to be readable at the level of “funders”.
Policy level
Priority: Strategic, Low.
Nordic council of ministers
Engagement summary:
- Publications, reports (y).
The Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) are the owners of NordForsk. The NordForsk Board, appointed by NCM provides the mandate for the NeIC Board. NeIC receives parts of its funding from NCM through NordForsk. NCM will be interested in NeIC activities as illustrations and success stories of Nordic collaboration. NeIC does not engage formally with NCM. Rather, dissemination of our activities should also be tailored to be readable at the level of “policy makers”.
National ministries
Engagement summary:
- Publications, reports (y).
The national ministries appoint representatives to various committees of the governance structure of the NCM. These ministries may have a some interest in NeIC activities as illustrations and success stories of Nordic collaboration, but in the case of Iceland the ministry may be more actively involved. NeIC does not engage formally with national ministries. Rather, dissemination of our activities should also be tailored to be readable at the level of “policy makers”.
Tactical engagements
In order to develop relations with stakeholders in all their capacities as defined in the NeIC stakeholder map, NeIC carries out the majority of the tactical stakeholder engagements through existing connections in ongoing activities.
According to the NeIC openness policy and the NeIC shared personnel information policy, as much as possible of the information produced by NeIC should be made as widely available as privacy permits.
Employees
Priority: Tactical, Highest.
Engagement summary:
- Executive team meetings (w, f2f: m, f2f-x: q),
- Project owner meetings (w),
- Team meetings (w, all-hands: y, site visits: y),
- All-hands meetings (y),
- One-on-one meetings (y)
NeIC Employees are named personnel in various organizations who are contracted either part- or full time to a NeIC activity. Personnel are not considered to be in the category Employees if they are involved in NeIC activities but are not on named service contracts, or are carrying out their contributions to the activity as part of their normal duties in another organization. Relations with such stakeholders are developed through engagements in other categories.
Examples of Employees:
- Executive team
- Activity leaders
- Activity staff
Employees are interested in challenges, work tasks and connections that help them develop their skills. They are also interested in having a work climate that is enjoyable and allows them to work effectively, which introduces an additional demand for management and leadership skills that NeIC recruits for and seeks to develop in Activity leader and Executive team Employees.
Engagement with NeIC executive team Employees is carried out by the NeIC director:
- Weekly online meetings.
- Monthly physical meetings.
- Quarterly meetings with invited project leaders.
- Yearly physical one-on-one dialogue meetings.
Engagement with NeIC activity leader Employees is carried out by the responsible coordinator:
- Weekly online meetings.
- Yearly physical one-on-one dialogue meetings.
Engagement with NeIC activity staff Employees is carried out by the activity leader:
- Weekly online meetings.
- Yearly site meetings.
- Yearly activity all-hands meetings.
- Yearly physical one-on-one dialogue meetings.
Engagement with NeIC Employees as a whole is carried out by the NeIC director:
- Yearly physical all-hands meetings.
Co-investing collaborators
Priority: Tactical, High.
Stakeholders: Employing institutions and Project partners, typically academic HPC centers or Nordic user communities.
Employing institutions
Engagement summary:
- Meetings, conferences (y).
NeIC contracts the services of named employees from their employing institutions, which can be national providers, academic HPC centers or other university representatives. Employing institutions generally bill NeIC for salaries, overhead and travel.
The employing institutions offer up the services of expert personnel and in return get the chance to pool resources with other institutions who are engaged in similar activities for the chance of accomplishing something greater than would have been possible if each were left to their own. Through the engaged personnel, the employing institutions get access to an influx of new ideas and solutions in areas that are of interest to them, and learn in detail how similar challenges are faced or overcome in other institutions. Once the term with NeIC has ended, the engaged personnel will return to full service at their employing institution, taking with them all the new skills and knowledge that they have acquired during the collaboration.
Project partners
Engagement summary:
- Steering group meetings (q).
NeIC projects are governed by steering groups composed by appointed representatives of the project partners. NeIC generally chairs the steering groups.
Non co-investing collaborators
Priority: Tactical, High.
Stakeholders: Open source projects, National resource allocation committees.
Open source projects
Stakeholders: dCache, ARC (Nordugrid), SGAS.
Engagement summary:
- Developers actively engaged in projects.
- Meetings (y).
Some open source projects are critical to the success of some NeIC activities, such that it would be very costly for NeIC to for example switch to another technology or become the sole maintainer of that software in the event that these projects should fail, or become abandoned by their developer communities, or decide to drop key features that are of core use in NeIC operations. To ensure that this does not happen, NeIC engages actively with these open source projects, for example by assisting them with structured release management, or contributing code for fixing defects or adding new features. NeIC also participates in meeting, workshops and conferences arranged by these open source projects. This engagement contributes to strengthening an image of NeIC as a contributor to excellent e-infrastructure on the global arena.
Users
Priority: Tactical, High.
Stakeholders: National and international research communities (eg. CERN/LHC experiments) and infrastructures, End users.
Engagement summary:
- As needed.
- Reference group meetings (q)
NeIC engages end user representatives to participate in project reference groups, to ensure that the results produced are useful to end users. NeIC also engages Nordic user communities, such as research infrastructure representatives, to join meetings to discuss needs and common interests (cf cross-cutting engagements below).
General public
Priority: Tactical, Medium.
Stakeholders: Humanity, Prospective employees and users.
Engagement summary:
- Publications, news articles, popular science blog posts (y).
The general public elect the politicians that populate the national governments that head the ministries that constitute the Nordic Council of Ministers that owns NordForsk. Some of our dissemination should be readable by Medelsvensson as it will contribute marginally to strengthening a positive image of NeIC. Communication through these channels can also contribute to strengthening a positive image of NeIC toward prospective employees and users.
International e-Infrastructure communities
Priority: Tactical, Medium.
Stakeholders: International e-infrastructure provider organizations, International e-infrastructure user communities (eg. WLCG).
Engagement summary:
- International conferences (y).
NeIC visits international events in e-infrastructure providers organizations and user communities, to present its results for benchmarking on the global arena, and to connect to international efforts where collaboration could be mutually beneficial.
Service providers
Priority: Tactical, Low.
Stakeholders: Providers of Network connectivity, Training, Legal counsel, Event organization, Collaboration technologies, and Open source projects.
Engagement summary:
- As needed.
NORDUnet
Engagement summary:
- Meetings (y)
- As needed.
NORDUnet is a collaboration between the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) of the five Nordic countries. NORDUnet operates an international network and e-infrastructure service for the Nordic R&E community. NORDUnet provides networking services to the Nordic Tier-1 (NT1), operated by NeIC. NT1 staff engages with NORDUnet staff on operational and technical issues. NeIC management engages with NORDUnet management on contract issues and for informal discussions on common challenges and opportunities.
Tieto PPS
NeIC has adopted the Tieto PPS model for use in all its projects and other activities to the extent that the model usefully fits, in order to have one standardized project model an lingo across the distributed organization. NeIC is a Tieto PPS license customer through NordForsk. NeIC offers PPS training to all Employees, and recommends it for Employees in management positions. All personnel engaged in a NeIC activity can use the PPS OnLine reference through the NordForsk account to further their understanding of the PPS model.
Event organization
NeIC contracts the services of event organizers for major events and workshops.
Collaboration technologies
NeIC relies heavily upon using free and accessible tools for communication and simultaneous co-authoring. NeIC prefers to use free and open tools, but prioritizes tools that are accessible for use by the stakeholders we engage with.
Open source projects
Stakeholders: OpenStack, Nagios.
Some open source projects are useful but not of vital importance to NeIC. NeIC contributes code back to these projects to fix defects and provide new features that are useful to NeIC.
Cross-cutting engagements
Priority: Tactical, High.
Focus areas: FA-1, FA-2, FA-3.
NeIC cross-cutting stakeholder engagements offers stakeholders in different roles and from different categories of the stakeholder map to meet and find solutions to e-infrastructure challenges that they face in common. NeIC prioritizes Strategic Partner involvement in these engagements, to ensure that any initiatives that are generated in these engagements are aligned with national priorities.
NeIC conference
NeIC arranges a conference approximately once every two years. This events engages stakeholders across all categories of the NeIC stakeholder map. The engagement with the General public is typically not emphasized for this event, apart from live streaming of the conference sessions to the public Internet and archival for Open Access to the video streams and presentation materials.
Stakeholder categories nominally engaged:
- Strategic partners
- Hosting organization
- Funders
- Policy level
- Employees
- Co-investing Collaborators
- Non co-investing Collaborators
- Users
- International e-Infrastructure communities
- Service providers
Topical workshops
NeIC hosts or funds workshops according to the NeIC policy on Workshops.
Project reference groups
Engagement summary:
- Reference group meetings (q).
Activities have the highest chance for success if they are supported by all their stakeholders, and ensure that they can benefit from the insight that their perspectives can provide. NeIC strives to engage the full range of stakeholders to a project in the Project reference groups. Priority is given to the Strategic partners but can otherwise be populated as appropriate for the project at the project leader's discretion. Principally, however, stakeholders from the following categories are nominally engaged.
Stakeholder categories nominally engaged:
- Strategic partners
- Co-investing Collaborators
- Non co-investing Collaborators
- Users
- International e-Infrastructure communities
- Service providers