Notes regarding the 2nd monitoring visit for the project
543820 TEMPUS-1-2013-1-JO- TEMPUS-JPHES (2013/001-001) which is titled "Capacity Building of Personnel in Jordanian Olive Industry"
Place: Faculty of Agriculture, Jordanian University of Science & Technology (JUST).
Date: Sunday, 8th of November, 2015.
Time: 9:00 am-3:30pm.
Attendance:
- Mr. Clivio Casali, the project contact officer, EACEA, Brussels
- Prof. Ahmad Abu-El-Haija, Director, National Erasmus+ Office, Jordan
- Dr. Reem Khader, National Erasmus+ Office, Jordan
- Prof. Ali Al-Saed, Project coordinator
- Prof. Khalid Al-Absi, representative of Mutah University
- Prof. Taha Rababah, representative of JUST
- Prof. Hail Shannag, Vice Dean of faculty of agriculture, JUST
- Dr. Radwan Ajo, representative of Balqa Applied University
- Eng. Samar Al-Momani, representative of Jordanian society of sensory evaluation of food
- Eng. Doaa Al-Rawashdeh, The project administrative team
- Eng. Othman Elayyan, The project administrative team Miss Ruba Dagmash, representative of JOPEA, she could not attend the meeting since she was out of the country.
The meeting started by Prof. Taha Rababah welcoming the guests to JUST and then the word was given to Prof. Ahmad Abu-El-Haija who clarified that the purpose of this visit is to help partners of Tempus projects to have a successful management to their projects.
Prof. Ali Al-Saed (project coordinator) gave a presentation about the progress achieved in the last 23 months of the project’s duration. Prof. Al-Saed demonstrated the achievements done in each work package and each activity which was also presented as a percentage.
During the presentation some comment were given by Mr Clivio and prof. Abu- haija such as:
a- The assessing study and the possibility of sharing the Jordanian mill personnel.
b- The EU student exchange to Jordan and the security issues.
c- The present tasks achievement and the differences in percentages between the Arabic and English versions.
d- The training courses and an abstract in English for each.
e- The website of the project and some defects
f- The long time required in the purchase of the olive mill and table olives pickling line in UJ, building of the main training center in UJ, finding MSc. or PhD. students with thesis subjects related to olive or olive oil for student exchange.
g- MSc students in JU, JUST and MU will travel to partner EU institutions in 2016 when their current courses are completed.
At 12:15 pm, the attendance had a meeting with the president of JUST Prof. Mahmoud Al-Sheyyab. Prof Ali al-Saed gave a brief about the project and Prof. Mamoud Al-Sheyyab welcomed guests of JUST and showed support to Tempus projects in general and the "Capacity Building of Personnel in Jordanian Olive Industry" project in special, then the attendance were invited to lunch.
At 2:00 pm the second session started and each of Prof. Khalid Al-Absi, Prof. Taha Rababah, Dr. Radwan Ajo and Eng Samar Al-Momani gave a short presentation about their institute’s role and achievement in the project. Then each partner explained the difficulties he or she faces in the project and the reasons of the delay in the completion of their project activities, such as preparation of the branches of the main center in MU, BAU and JUST.
The partners also demonstrated that most of these problems are almost in their way to be solved, i.e the UJ’s tenders department started the process of purchasing the needed equipment, the BAU branch will be completed in the next two months, JUST branch is completed, MU branch will be completed next week etc.
Jordanian partners asked few questions regarding co-financing and staff cost which were answered by Mr. Clivio Casali and Prof. Ahmad Abu-El-Haija, such as:
1- Is it possible to combine staff cost and travel cost or cost of stay in the same day?
Staff cost and travel cost can be combined if there is no hotel stay but if there is an hotel stay, cost of stay and staff cost can not be combined.
2- How to distribute costs of workshops?
Lecturers fees will be covered from staff cost, publishing from indirect costs and others from other costs.
3- Is it possible to provide the partners with a supporting letter to facilitate visa acquirement for staff and student exchange?
The answer was that such letter could be provided.
Prof. Ali Al-Saed also mentioned some concerns of Prof. Maria Tsimidou (AUTH) regarding the compensation of salary in AUTH, so Mr. Clivio Casali asked to forward the email of her concerns to him in order to fully understand her situation and reply respectively.
At the end of the meeting Prof. Ahmad Abu-El-Haija gave the following notes:
1- Better dissemination and promotion of the olive MSc. Program.
2- Student exchange could be stressed more.
3- Continues improvement to the project’s website could be done.
4- Linking the branches laboratories with MSc. And BSc. Programs in their universities.
5- Planning to continue using the branches laboratories in building capacities after the end of the project’s duration.
6- Creating a checklist of attribute to assess the magnitude of the project’s quality and impact on the Jordanian olive industry.
7- Involvement of more staff in the project.
8- Ensure that delay due to purchase of equipment is managed.
9- The correct and most recent logos of Tempus-funded projects should be used.
And Mr. Clivio Casali added the following notes:
1- More detailed sustainability plan which has more participation of the Jordanian partners could be created.
2- Young staff could be more involved.
3- There is no any need for a financial expert from non-partner institutes to manage the financial aspects of the project.
The meeting ended at 15:30 pm.
The visit was announced on the JUST- News website