THE ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI

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THE ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI
ISO 90012000 and AUTH Research Committee
Christina Besta, Chief Executive Officer of
Research CommitteeNikolas Georgiadis, Manager of
quality assurance
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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

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THE ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI

• Carries out
• 1.500 Research and Technological 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

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The research funding
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The Human Potential

• 1.340 out of 2.400 members of the teaching and
  research staff participate in RTD projects
• 12.000 external co-operators, scientists and
  technicians have been employed in the last 3
  years

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What is the Research Committee (RC)?
It is an academic institution for the management
of research and related activities within the
University
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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
• Designing and implementing research policies
• Allocating and managing external funding
• Facilitating synergy between research and
  teaching

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What is a funded project?

• 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

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Project Types

• Research Technological
• Educational
• Training
• Consulting and provision of scientific services

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The RC Project Management cycle

• 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

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Administrative structure
a. The Research Committee
b. The Secretariat

• It is the authority responsible for mapping out
  the research policy of the University as well as
  other relevant activities

• Supervision of the accounting and management
  turnover of the special account

• It is the authority responsible for the approval
  and allocation of the funds for the
  implementation of the research projects

• Implementation and administrative processing of
  the Research Committees decisions

The legal framework for managing research in
Greek Universities (Called The Special Account
of Research Funds, a.k.a. Special Account)

• It is the authority qualified to draw up the
  annual financial and scientific planning and
  reports

• Suggestions and cooperation on issues relative to
  the operation and development of the special
  account

• It is the authority in charge to safeguard the
  operation and the development of the special
  account

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Administrative structure
a. The Research Committee
b. The Secretariat

• It is the authority responsible for mapping out
  the research policy of the University as well as
  other relevant activities

• Supervision of the accounting and management
  turnover of the special account

• It is the authority responsible for the approval
  and allocation of the funds for the
  implementation of the research projects

• Implementation of the Research Committees
  decisions

• It is the authority qualified to draw up the
  annual financial and scientific planning and
  reports

• Proposals Submission relative to the operation
  and development of the Special Account

• It is the authority in charge to assure the right
  operation and the development of the Special
  Account

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Organizational chart of the Secretariat of the
Research Committee
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The Business Plan

• Planning the targets and actions of the next
  three years for the implementation of the
  research strategy

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Synthesis and selection of a strategy
Opportunities ()
Strategy
Internal environment
Strengths ()
Weaknesses (-)
External environment
Threats (-)
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What is the research strategy?

• The major strategic objective is
• Excellence
• At the core of the research strategy lies the
  promotion of Quality of the research activity

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A Strategy for Quality of the RC

• The Research Committee succeed to receive the ISO
  90012000 Certificate in November 2002
• 16 research laboratories are in the process of
  obtaining an ISO quality certificate

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The quality management system in RC

• The development of the Quality Management System
  was based on
• Mapping the current situation
• Identifying the weaknesses
• Establishing the Quality policy
• Setting the objective goals of Quality, and
• Identifying the processes that rule the operation
  of the organization and the proper evaluation of
  these processes.

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RC Quality Policy

• The major ideas behind the Quality Policy of the
  Research Committee are
• The creation of an attraction point for Funding
  Agencies or Institutions
• The deployment of new activities in the field of
  research and
• exploitation of research results

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RCs Quality Policy implemented at three parallel
levels

• 1st level Operational improvement
• 2nd level Customer satisfaction
• 3rd level expanding our activities

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RC Quality Objectives

• The Quality Objectives promote the three year
  business objectives, as stated in the Business
  Plan that materializes the research strategy

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The quality operation of the Research Committee
The systems and their targets
Quality management system
Transaction system
Assuring quality in management service
One stop service
Information system
Providing services anytime anywhere
Administrative-financial-accounting management
system
Customer management system
Customer Satisfaction
Legal base in management service
Integration, flexibility and quality assurance in
research management activities
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Towards our Quality Policy

• We confronted the mentality of the traditional
  public sector
• therefore

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Towards our Quality Policy

• We gave emphasis on human resources
• Staff training
• Staff evaluation
• Work delegation
• We gave emphasis on the work environment and the
  use of technology

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Towards our Quality Policy

• We gave emphasis on developing a system of
  procedures and guidelines, covering all
  organizational tasks
• We gave emphasis on the demands, problems and
  needs of our
• Customers and
• Collaborators

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Towards our Quality Policy

• 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

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What did we achieve through ISO ?

• Transforming traditional work culture into a
  culture of quality
• Obtaining a constantly evolving Organization
  strength against external changes

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Future Objectives

• Measuring the added value of the Quality
  Management Systems operation, and comparing it
  with the old system

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• Thank you for your attention