Context

The signature of the HUMANIST VCE by-laws is the result of a rich process.

The main actions to set up the HUMANIST VCE have been achieved during the first phase of HUMANIST existence. HUMANIST has been, during this period of time (2004-2008), a European Project aimed at IVIS and ADAS Human Machine Interactions. It has been a Network of Excellence (NoE) gathering 24 partners and involving about 125 researchers and 40 PhDs. Its budget has been of more than 8 millions Euros with a contribution of the European Commission of 5.36 Million Euros.

The partners of the HUMANIST NoE have carried out a variety of activities covering the full range of actions that a Research Institute has to implement to achieve its goals:

  • Scientific results and processes
  • Encouragement of researchers mobility
  • Sharing of research infrastructure
  • Setting up of electronic tools to ease information exchanges
  • Training activities
  • Interactions with stakeholders
  • Dissemination
  • Governance and management

This has been made in strong relationship with other eSafety projects or Working Groups such as RTD WG, INCO WG and HMI WG.

In parallel with these activities that were aiming at experiencing new ways of working in Europe and at defining the content of the HUMANIST VCE, the partners carried out dedicated actions for setting up the HUMANIST VCE.

To invent a suitable organisation for the sustainability of HUMANIST, a two and a half year process has been implemented. The starting point of the process was the issue of the Intermediate version of the Business Plan, at fall 2005. The purpose of this document was to present a first set of solutions, called scenarios, to launch the discussion between partners. The release of this first document was pursued by many discussions within HUMANIST consortium and outside the Network. Within the Network 6 meetings involving all partners at all level were held. Furthermore, a working group was set up to implement the results of the discussion. Finally, on 14th March 2007, the Assembly of the HUMANIST NoE acknowledged that the proposed project for the HUMANIST VCE was appropriate and that the signature process could start. In parallel, a benchmarking process has been followed outside the Network. This process has been implemented through discussion with many Stakeholders such as:

  • European Commission
  • Industry within the Scientific Advisory board
  • ECTRI and FERSI organisations
  • Other NoEs

The Humanist experience can be used by other Networks of Excellence and demonstrate that federating research institutes and universities is practicable as long as they are constantly involved in the process. This process is also a good indicator of success for the VCE, which has been built up on robust foundations.