In a previous post we introduced the importance of communication in the context of European-funded projects, and we defined three modules for establishing efficient communication:

A) Internal Communication Tools
B) Communication Activities
C) Website

After describing the tools for internal communication, we now address communication activities and the website.

Why do we need Communication activities?

They are the core of internal communication among project members and external communication with stakeholders. They define how the various actors in a project, including project members, scientists, external stakeholders, funding agencies, and citizens, communicate. They are usually described in the Communication Plan.

An effective approach for defining communication activities in the Communication Plan is the following:

  1. Define general objectives
  2. For each objective, define a clear, pragmatic, and concrete sub-objective
  3. For each sub-objective, describe
    1. Who the actors involved are
    2. What means of communication are used
  4. Define Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action

Here is an example: assume that your project includes the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We could then use the following schema:

  • Objective: involvement of SMEs;
  • Sub-Objective1: participation of SMEs in project events;
    • Actors: Project Management Office (PMO), SME representatives
    • Action1: PMO invites SMEs to project events by email
      • KPI for Action1: number of invites / number of participants ratio
    • Action2: ask SMEs to contribute talks or presentations to the event or conference
      • KPI for Action2: number of talks by SME representatives
  • Sub-Objective2: keep SMEs updated about project news;
    • Action1: send a monthly newsletter to SMEs by email
      • KPI for Action1: number of links clicked from the email
    • Action2: ….
      • KPI for Action2: ….
  • Sub-Objective3: produce documentation about common work;
    • Action1: …
      • KPI for Action1: …

Well… got the idea?

Of course, a list of communication tools should also be provided. It may include:

  • Newsletters
  • Social network activities
  • Videos
  • Interviews
  • …

It is not simple to list them exhaustively. Their need and usefulness depend heavily on the type of project and its goals. This is also an activity that requires communication expertise. In this respect, the best suggestion is to work with a serious communication company experienced in EU projects.

The website: a must

The purpose of the website is usually to disseminate relevant project information to all stakeholders. The website should not contain restricted material, but only publicly accessible material, such as documents and presentations for external or internal stakeholders, and images for press review.

And social media? The website should also include news and interactions from social networks. However, it should remain simple enough to allow almost anyone with basic IT skills to add pages, articles, and images.

Which technology?

A simple CMS (Content Management System) based on standard LAMP technologies (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) is the most reasonable solution. Many popular solutions exist, such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. To be Web 2.0 compliant, the layout template could be based on a CSS3 framework such as Bootstrap, Foundation, or Sass, since these infrastructures provide cross-browser compatibility on desktop and mobile devices.

Users & editors

We plan to have up to five content editors, that is, CMS users. Their access credentials will give them editing capabilities on various subsections of the website; they must be able to:

  • create new pages and update existing content pages.
  • rename existing pages or move them around the site hierarchy; site navigation should update automatically
  • set publish/unpublish dates for documents
  • upload sets of images and add a public viewing gallery to any page
  • edit content boxes appearing in splash / summary pages, or in side columns

Editors will need to be fully trained on all tools available in the CMS, probably through an initial dedicated hands-on seminar, for example three or four two-hour sessions.

..and some extras….

Website management will also require prompt CMS software updates, performance and security monitoring, full management of the SQL database, possible additional database tables and CMS tools, such as PHP snippets based on the CMS API, and traffic statistics monitoring through tools such as Google Analytics.

That’s all folks

Now we reach the conclusion. I will tell you a secret: the contents of these two posts were actually extracted from work I did to select a company to support communication activities in our project. And it seems to work.

Of course, these are just ideas that still need a lot of refinement.

However, having seen that communication activities in EU projects are unfortunately sometimes disconnected from the wealth of knowledge about communication, which is widely used for commercial purposes, these two posts aim to be a starter guide for approaching communication in EU projects.

Comments and feedback are more than welcome. And please share your experience.

EU projects aim at competition, it is true, but sharing information about these hidden challenges will help everyone design and run better projects for better science.

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