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3rd EPICA Consortium Meeting, December 2018, Germany

It was attended by representatives from all partner organisations of the consortium: ICDE (NO), MyDocumenta (ES), Open University of Tanzania (TZ), Maseno University (KE), Makerere University (UG), Open University of Catalonia (ES), the African Virtual University (KE) and ICWE (GE).

The purpose of meeting was to review the achieved milestones and the year-to-date deliverables and tasks as well as to identify and discuss potential problems, issues and challenges that could arise..

The meeting also served the purpose to introduce and start the collaboration with the newly appointed External Advisory Board (EAB).

And finally the meeting enabled the consortium members to prepare the three main upcoming milestones in terms of accountability towards the European Commission.

Jean-Baptiste Milon, the project coordinator, opened the meeting and explained the structure of the following days and any changes to project related matters since the last consortium meeting in Arusha, Tanzania in July 2018. Rebecca Stromeyer, the project coordinator from ICWE, the meeting organiser, explained the logistical details related to the meeting and gave a short description of the historical importance of the city of Potsdam.

Each partner presented their advancements in the different work packages and informed of the progress of the project. It was agreed that all milestones of the project were on track.

During the first day of the meeting the following aspects were addressed:

  • An overview of the business and sustainability plan that showed the efforts to find an optimized platform costs analysis.
  • The legal issues related to the project such as GDPR and data privacy.
  • The different actions that are being implemented to ensure a high dissemination and communication of the project.
  • The skill gaps analysis developed by UOC and the maturity and needs report as a basis for the future co-design of the EPICA ePortfolio.
  • The technological adaptation and integration of the ePortfolio with cloud-based technologies, based on the users' needs.
  • Some financial aspects to report on the actual status of the project.

TheAfrican partner universities had the opportunity to talk about their latest experiences in testing the pilot system with students, which offered highly relevant insights for the future development of the ePortfolio.

The second day of the meeting counted with the presence of EPICA's new External Advisory Board (EAB). All partners made a short presentation to introduce themselves an their activities in the project to provide the EAB with a complete overview of the project highlighting the milestones achieved to date as well as the deliverables that lay ahead.. Once all presentations were given, the EAB had the opportunity to ask concrete questions and offer the consortium some suggestions based on their different expertise and knowledge in the spehere. All their inputs were considered highly useful and relevant and they will be taken into account in the next steps of the project.

A short part of the meeting was dedicated to prepare the next meeting with the European Commission that will take place in March in Luxembourg.

There was also time for social activities that included the visit to a typical German Christmas market and a visit to Sans Souci Palace in Potsdam.

The meeting was considered a great success with all partners highly committed to the project and with all deliverables and milestones being delivered on time. The next meeting will be held in Barcelona in June, 2019.

EPICA Consortium