Project Manager - Communication Science, Information Technology

Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI)

The Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI) seeks an experienced and highly skilled Project Manager to be responsible for the overall administration and management support of the Horizon 2020 Grassroot Wavelengths project (nº780890), funded by the European Commission. If possible the project manager would have a research background in one of the scholarly fields covered in the project, and could potentially contribute to the project in both research and administrative capacities.

The successful candidate will work under the supervision of European Research Area Chair Professor Chris Csikszentmihályi and will be an integrated member of the core Project Coordination Team at M-ITI. The position is suited to candidates with project management experience, involving the coordination of multiple partners in international EU funded collaborative projects, as well as knowledge of EU Framework Program funding. The candidate must be comfortable working on complex projects with evolving objectives. S/he will be expected to be a proactive, independent problem solver and innovator, and facilitate collaboration within a broad network of partners across disciplines and for engagement with the wider international Grassroot Wavelengths community.

Responsibilities include:

Providing coordination support for the management and day-to-day running of the project: Maintaining the project plan, tracking progress against Gantt charts, and ensuring conformance with proposed deliverables and milestones; maintaining accurate project records and ensure full compliance with EC regulations amongst the consortium.

Communicating regularly with project partners, EC Project Officers and M-ITI administration team; ensuring EC reporting requirements are met within specified deadlines; managing peer review processes, and working proactively with all partners to make sure deliverables are produced on time and to a high standard; planning and organizing weekly, monthly, and annual progress meetings, workshops and conferences.

Financial management of the project: maintaining a central project budget and spending plan; overseeing overall resource distribution and associated expenditure, completing and submitting EC financial reports; Processing mission planning and mission reports, liaising with Researchers and Principal Investigators, as well as M-ITI’s board.

Support liaison, networking, project web page, social media presence, and other communication; keeping the project’s dissemination and blogging efforts up-to-date (website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube).
 

Project Description

The Grassroot Wavelengths project will create a game changing network of inclusive digital platforms for citizen engagement, community deliberation, and the free flow of information within, into, and out of discrete geographic communities by piloting solutions for connected, inexpensive, community owned and operated radio across Europe. Our approach Civic Media, born and developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and now based in Madeira, includes community-based participatory design methods for setting up stations and services and understanding the processes in which they will be used and appropriated, along with an emphasis on synthetic speech to support the curation of audio content, thus turning data into media.

Building on the success of the existing RootIO platform – with its proven commons-oriented technology and catalytic capacities for promoting/enabling collective awareness and action, participatory innovation, community resilience, and media pluralism – we will: deploy and test a network of low-power community radio stations in Ireland, Portugal, and Romania; work with community groups, journalists, and public good experts to develop a robust platform for expansion across Europe; enhance use and accessibility of networked community radio through text-to-speech, community oriented programming applications, and other community-supported modes for contributing and managing content); and work within the EU framework to establish a public support infrastructure for local ownership and revenue generation. Together, these four actions combine to form a robust and tested platform with a clear path to scaling and exploitation in Europe and beyond.

Required

• Masters or PhD in Communication Science, Information Technology, or a related field
• At least two years experience in project management
• Knowledge of EU funding programs (especially Horizon 2020)
• Proven experience managing a European project
• Ability to work independently, with excellent attention to detail and accuracy
• Strong organization and time management skills, ability to multi-task, prioritize effectively, and work within deadline constraints
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written (English)
• Evidence of contributing to progress reporting and documentation within research projects
• Ability to work as an integral part of an international, multi-disciplinary team
• Ability to organise events, e.g. training events, public engagement events and arrange meetings
• Financial management skills, e.g. spending planning and budget management
• Ability to use spreadsheets, databases and IT presentation packages (i.e. PowerPoint, Microsoft Office/Outlook)

 
Preferred

• Proven experience in the management and coordination of H2020 projects 
• Evidence of experience in conducting research in a related area

 
Selection committee: Prof. Dr. Chris Csikszentmihalyi, Prof. Dr. Simone Ashby and Prof. Dr. Maurizio Teli.

Contract and Remuneration

The initial contract will be for a period of 12 months, for potential renewable up to a maximum of 24 months, or until the end of the project if fewer than 24 months remain before the official project deadline.

Monthly stipend:  

The monthly stipend will be 1230€ for a candidate with a Master degree and 1745€ for a candidate with a PhD degree, tax free. The stipends are in accordance with the amounts established by Portugal’s National Science and Technology Foundation, the FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) at https://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores.phtml.en. The social security is paid by the hiring entity.

About Madeira-ITI

Madeira-ITI is an innovation institute and non-profit R&D organization that operates in the interdisciplinary domain of human-computer interaction (HCI) for addressing and engaging in important scientific and technological challenges that have societal relevance and impact. Madeira-ITI is one of the top HCI centers in Europe, recently evaluated as "Excellent" by Portugal’s national science foundation (FCT). Madeira itself is a small semi-autonomous island, located off the coast of Morocco with a quarter of a million people, an awe-inspiring landscape, and an average year-round temperature of 21º degrees.