Organization of RC LACE


RC LACE is Regional Cooperation for Limited Area Modelling of 6 Central European countries including: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. From the beginning of 2003, the common operational LACE suite stops. Each partner is responsible for its own operational applications, only the coupling files computed from ARPEGE are the same for all domains. Cooperation is in research, training and maintenance actions.

R&D projects are defined by scientific objectives and the work needed to accomplish them. The work can be done either locally and/or in the form of research group stays. Therefore project definition should contain estimation of needed manpower, CPU and budget implications. For research group stays, travel and per-diem expences will be covered by the central budget.

Research projects can be proposed by anybody and channelled through working group leader to the Steering Committee. The steering committee evaluates the proposed projects and prepares the RC LACE working plan that consists from accepted projects. This plan should correspond to ALADIN annual and medium term scientific plans. The RC LACE working plan is then submitted to Council for final approval once a year.


ORGANIZATION:
    - Council of  Directors,
    - Steering Committee & Steering Committee Chairman and
    - Managment Group.


STEERING COMMITTEE & STEERING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

The Steering Committee is advisory body that evaluate and monitor all aspects of RC LACE Project activities and voluntary contributions of local R&D activities. Steering Committee reports the quality of the Project to the Council, according to the documents prepared by Management Group.

The Steering committee meets 2 times per year. If changes are envisaged, an operational change in the plan can be made (emergency meeting or voting by e-mail).

Term of References (TOR) of Steering Committee:

Steering Committee consists from one representative from each member state with right to vote, from WGLs and PL without voting rights. Steering Committee is steered by its Steering Committee Chairman. Steering Committee Chairman is elected from representatives. The position will be kept under to 1+1 year duration. Steering Committee responsibilities are:
    - evaluation of the all aspects of LACE Project activities.
    - evaluation of voluntarily contributions of local R&D activities.
    - to prepare report about quality of the LACE Project that is presented by Steering Committee Chairman during the Council Session.
Steering committee should meet twice per year and act as the main forum that would evaluate all suggestions and ideas related to the NWP issues and the Project. Steering Committee could invite some experts out of LACE and ALADIN community to Steering Committee meetings in order to present the NWP related achievements. Steering Committee would supervise and report to the Council the quality of the Project.

TOR of ALADIN Steering Committee Cairman:

Steering Committee Chairman responsibilities are:
    - To co-ordinate members of Steering Committee during Steering Committee Sessions.
    - To organise Steering Committee Sessions.
    - To supervise and control PL.
    - To report quality of the Project during the Council Session.


MANAGEMENT GROUP
    - Project Leader (PL);
    - Working Group Leaders (WGLs):
              - WGL for Data Assimilation;
              - WGL for Dynamics and Coupling;
              - WGL for Physics;
    - Aladin System Coordinator (ASC) and
    - Data manager (DM).


Hierarchy of Personnel

Project Leader (PL) acts under the responsibility of the Council. Project Leader is responsible person to run the project, to supervise the budget and leads the Management Group. Project Leader has mandate from the Council to search for the candidates for the new Management Group. More than one candidate should be nominated for the each position. PL acts under the responsibility of President of the Council in the period between the Council sessions. RC LACE PL is a half time position. PL can not be WGL at the same time.
ASC, DM and WGLs are at the same level and they act under the responsibility of PL.

Project Leader should act as the co-ordinator of WGLs and should report to the Steering committee concerning the maintenance issue. Project Leader should observe the proportion of ASC and DM work on the local and transversal problems and co-ordinate the actions with the ALADIN community. Working Group Leaders should co-ordinate the research activities with the ALADIN Scientific plans according to the yearly decisions of Steering Committee.


Term of References (TOR) of Project Leader:

LACE PL is a half time position. PL can not be WGL at the same time. His/Her duties are:
    - PL LACE will be responsible to the Council for the execution of the LACE Project.
    - PL LACE will be responsible for the preparation of Scientific Plan in harmonisation with WGLs.
    - PL LACE will co-ordinate activities executed at the Telecommunication and Archiving Centre during its existence.
    - PL LACE will prepare the Annual Budget and will survey contributions and expenses under supervision of President of the Council.
    - PL LACE will be responsible for running the administration of the LACE Project.
    - PL LACE will be have a role of the contact point in the relations between LACE and Numerical Weather Prediction Partner Meteo-France.
    - PL LACE will be responsible to organise LACE Workshops together with WGLs.
    - PL LACE will be responsible for Research Groups Scientific Stays Organisation together with WGLs.
    - PL LACE will be responsible to delegate representative of LACE Project at European Numerical Weather Prediction meetings.
    - PL LACE will be responsible to supervise and co-ordinate maintenance of the model between LACE members.
    - PL LACE is responsible to co-ordinate WGLs.
    - PL LACE will lead the Management Group consisting of ASC, DM and WGLs.
    - PL LACE will organise the sessions of LACE Council.
    - PL LACE will provide reports to the Council about the project execution.


ToR of Working Group Leaders:

LACE WGL is half time position. His/Her duties are:
    - WGL LACE will be responsible to co-ordinate and to steer scientists working in his/her Working Group in order to accomplish Scientific Plan.
    - WGL LACE will be responsible for the preparation of Projects and Scientific Plan together with PL.
    - WGL LACE will be responsible to organise Workshops in the co-operation with PL.
    - WGL LACE will be responsible for Research Groups Scientific Stays Organisation together with PL.
    - WGL LACE will be responsible to supervise scientific work within Working Group of his/her responsibility.


Aladin System Coordinator (ASC) would work at the phasing issues at the Meteo-France and at home Service with possibility of remote work at other member’s Services. In the case of emergency ASC would help by visiting the other Services for the period not longer than 2 weeks per country. Host would cover the travel cost, accommodation and per-diem for the ASC visits to the Services.

Data Manager (DM) is responsible for the verification issues.


ToR of ALADIN System Co-ordinator/Data Manager:

ASC and DM are one and half time position. PL sets proportion of work between ASC and DM.
    - ASC LACE will be responsible to provide technical support for Telecommunication and Archiving Centre during its existence.
    - ASC LACE will be responsible to phase the agreed part of the developed code to the reference library of IFS/ARPEGE/ALADIN. To ensure effectiveness of the phasing ASC should stay at CNRM/Meteo France close to and with some overlap with the main phasing period.
    - ASC LACE will be responsible to collect the validated code developments done by the Working Groups and verify that the coding standards of IFS/ARPEGE/ALADIN are respected.
    - ASC LACE will be responsible to advise other members about structural changes in the code of higher cycle of the library.
    - ASC LACE will be responsible to provide support during porting of new developments for each LACE member in balanced way controlled by PL.
    - ASC LACE is entitled to refuse the phasing to the principal IFS/ARPEGE/ALADIN library of such pieces of the code which are too far from the coding standards or developed on too obsolete library cycles. ASC should advice the developer of the code how to proceed in such a case.
    - ASC LACE will be responsible to report the status of applications of LACE members to PL.
    - ASC LACE will be responsible to maintain WWW page of LACE together with PL.
    - ASC would visit some LACE centres regarding the phasing issues under the PL supervision. The ASC travel expenses at the missions would be paid by host institutes, under the common rules.
    - DM LACE will be responsible for all aspects related to work with data not yet covered by Data Assimilation Working Group.
    - DM duties would be adjusted to Data Assimilation Working Group research achievements and needs. Also, DM would synchronise the activities related to the organisation of observation databases.
    - The PL would build the yearly plan of ASC/DM duties and define the proportion of ASC/DM tasks under the 1+ 1/2 year overall limit.


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