In order to ensure that the project runs to schedule, effective project management is needed, which involves:

• Ongoing financial management throughout the project – comparing budget with spend for PI and partners (if applicable) and ensuring all costs are eligible under the relevant cost categories. In collaborative projects, the partners are responsible for reporting on their own financial expenditure, with oversight from the coordinating organisation.
• Effective communication between all team members and project partners, and the organisation and facilitation of regular project and consortium meetings.
• Successful stakeholder involvement, which needs strategic internal and external communication between the PI, partners and collaborators (if applicable).
• Keeping the project on schedule – regular meetings, using a Gantt chart, checking tasks against project plan, milestones and deliverables, contingency planning, etc.
• Communication with the funding agency about divergences in timing or budget, as well as requests for extensions, etc.