D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan by COMRADES EU Project

www.comrades-‐project.eu

D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

Project acronym:

Grant agreement no.:

COMRADES Collective Platform for Community Resilience and Social Innovation during Crisis 687847

Responsible:

Rasa Uzdavinyte (Gov2U)

Contributors:

Pantelis Kanellopoulos (Gov2U)

Document Reference:

D6.1

Dissemination Level:

< PU>

Version:

Final

Date:

07/07/2016

Project full title:

Disclaimer: This document reflects only the author's view and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union

D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

History Version

Date

Modification reason

Modified by

0.1

26.06.2016 Initial draft

Rasa Uzdavinyte (Gov2U), Pantelis Kanellopoulos (Gov2U)

0.2

29.06.2016 Review

Harith Alani (OU)

0.9

05.07.2016 Quality check

Rasa Uzdavinyte (Gov2U)

1.0

07.07.2016 Final reviewed deliverable

Rasa Uzdavinyte (Gov2U)

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

Table of contents History ............................................................................................................................... 2 Table of contents ............................................................................................................... 3 List of abbreviations .......................................................................................................... 4 Executive summary ............................................................................................................ 5 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 6 1

WP6 Dissemination, Exploitation, and Communication .............................................. 7 1.1

Scope and objectives of the deliverable ...................................................................... 7

1.2

Methodology of the deliverable .................................................................................. 7

1.3

Structure of the deliverable ........................................................................................ 8

1.4

Relation of the deliverable to WP6 deliverables ......................................................... 8

1.5

Quality management ................................................................................................... 9

External Communication .......................................................................................... 10 2.1

Stakeholder identification ......................................................................................... 10

2.2

Dissemination objectives and strategy ...................................................................... 11

2.2.1

Dissemination and Communication objectives ................................................. 11

2.2.2

Dissemination and Communication strategy .................................................... 12

2.2.3

The phases of dissemination process ................................................................ 13

2.2.4

Principles of stakeholder engagement (strategic & operational) ...................... 14

2.2.5

Methods and tools: channels of dissemination ................................................. 14

2.3

2.3.1

Actions to achieve the dissemination objectives .............................................. 18

2.3.2

Actions to reach the identified stakeholders .................................................... 22

2.4 3

Measurement of the effectiveness of Dissemination and Communication activities 24

Internal Communication ........................................................................................... 26 3.1

Dissemination actions ............................................................................................... 18

Internal workflow ...................................................................................................... 26

Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 27

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

List of abbreviations <Abbreviation>

COMRADES

Project Name

Work Package

GOV2U

Government To You

DoA

Description of Action

General Assembly

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

Executive summary COMRADES project was launched in January 2016 with a lifetime of 36 months and it aims to empower communities with intelligent socio-‐technical solutions to help them reconnect, respond to, and recover from crisis situations. COMRADES consortium will build a next generation, intelligent resilience platform to provide high socio-‐technical innovation and to support community resilience in crises situations. The platform will capture and process in real-‐time, multilingual social information streams from distributed communities, for the purpose of identifying, aggregating, and verifying reported events at the citizen and community levels. Resilience frameworks, guidelines and best practices will be embedded into the platform design and functionality, enriched with open datasets and open source software. The main objectives of the project is to foster social innovation during crises for safeguarding communities during critical scenarios from inaccurate, distrusted, and overhyped information, and for raising citizen and community awareness of crisis situations by providing them with filtered, validated, enriched, high quality, and actionable knowledge. Community decision-‐making will be assisted by automated methods for real-‐time, intelligent processing and linking of crowdsourced crisis information. This document forms deliverable D6.1 “Dissemination and Communication Action Plan“-‐ Collective Platform for Community Resilience and Social Innovation during Crisis. The current deliverable delineates the strategy that will be followed and implemented for the dissemination and communication of COMRADES project throughout its duration. Communication strategies include the definition of objectives, a comprehensive and detailed action planning, collaboration with other WPs, systematic impact assessment, etc. It is based on, and is consistent with, the DoA and the CA, but is not a substitute for reading these documents.

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

Introduction COMRADES is a 3 year project that was launched in January 2016 aiming to empower communities with intelligent socio-‐technical solutions to help them reconnect, respond to, and recover from crisis situations. COMRADES consortium will build a next generation, intelligent resilience platform to provide high socio-‐technical innovation and to support community resilience in crisis situations. The platform will capture and process in real-‐time, multilingual social information streams from distributed communities, for the purpose of identifying, aggregating, and verifying reported events at the citizen and community levels. Resilience frameworks, guidelines and best practices will be embedded into the platform design and functionality, enriched with open datasets and open source software. Collective intelligence and social innovation platforms are set to play an important role in supporting and boosting community resilience, by providing the means for communities to acquire valued information, to help them self-‐assess, make informed decisions, communicate, and organize their response. Moreover, social media has emerged in recent years as a dominant channel for communities to gather and spread information during crises. The project’s platform will assist in safeguarding communities during critical scenarios from inaccurate, distrusted, and overhyped information, and for raising citizen and community awareness of crisis situations by providing them with filtered, validated, enriched, high quality, and actionable knowledge. This document is the first deliverable of WP6 and is aimed at setting up a “Dissemination and Communication Action Plan“, to be followed by all Comrades partners and implemented by the W6 leader Gov2U. The deliverable describes initially the goals of the dissemination activities, tackles the main stakeholder groups, sets key targets in communication activities as well as gives an initial timeline for the set of dissemination and communication activities and tools to be used.

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

WP6 Dissemination, Exploitation, and Communication

Work Package 6 (WP6) is a subset of the COMRADES project. According to Description of Work (DoA) for the COMRADES project, WP6 will dedicate its efforts to promoting and communicating widely the project objectives, activities and its findings at European and international level to iteratively execute the dissemination and exploitation plan to achieve best possible market relevance and value of the project results. In order to achieve the above, WP6 will use a series of online and offline tools and communication strategies throughout the project lifetime, in order to bring attention to the project, gain trust and ensure acceptance of the results by the stakeholders and the wider audience, related to the field of the project. Moreover, the current task will ensure the smooth collaboration with other WPs related to the communication of their work and achievements, target groups engagement, will monitor the progress of the communication and dissemination activities of the project and will report these activities and their results. The achievement of WP6 main goals and objectives is highly dependent on the active role and participation of the partners in all the tasks and activities of this WP in order to engage with the key stakeholders and use partner network as well as go in line with the research process of the project. As described in the DoA, all partners are responsible for individual dissemination tasks, for example, authorship of research publications, attendance of conferences and events, etc. However, Gov2U is the leader of the WP, and the coordinator of communication actions with substantial strategic input from all partners, therefore any communication activities shall be widely coordinated and discussed within the consortium.

1.1

Scope and objectives of the deliverable

The scope of this deliverable is to outline the communication and dissemination strategy that will be implemented for COMRADES project. Dissemination strategies are comprised by the definition of objectives, a clearly defined action planning (what has to be achieved, by whom, when, results, monitoring), iteration cycles to collect feedback from all stakeholders, systematic impact assessment and so on. The dissemination activities will be implemented at European and international level during the whole duration of the project. The current dissemination plan will be regularly reviewed and updated consistently with the project’s evolution and the new knowledge acquired. If necessary, corrective actions will be taken, in consultation with the project’s consortium.

1.2

Methodology of the deliverable

The methodology followed for the production of the current deliverable is based on the constructive and close collaboration of WP6 leader with the WP6 partners. The initial version of the “D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan” deliverable was compiled by Gov2u and was sent to WP6 partners for reviewing and commenting. The current deliverable was finalised after comments/suggestions and sent to the project leader.

incorporating

WP6

partner’s

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

1.3

Structure of the deliverable

The current deliverable will be based on two fundamental aspects of communication: • •

External Communication Internal communication

The external communication of the project will be conducted based on a well-‐structured dissemination strategy by all WP6 partners targeting various audiences (key stakeholders – identified in following section) in order to achieve the objectives and mission of COMRADES. Internal communication among the partners is evenly important for project’s succession and cannot be disregarded, as the smooth development of the project needs to be ensured. The main sections of the document are delineated below: • •

•

Introduction External Communication o Stakeholder Identification -‐ Target groups that are anticipated to be interested in the project and are regarded as key to the project will be identified and listed. o Dissemination Objectives and Strategy – Determination of overall objectives and phases’ description of the dissemination strategy, the tools and methods that will be employed for achieving the dissemination goals. o Dissemination actions and measurement of their effectiveness -‐ The actions planned for achieving successful project’s dissemination will be elaborated and accompanied by evaluation processes in order to measure their short term and long term effectiveness. Internal Communication – Describes how the project works internally, presents the roles and the responsibilities of the partners, discusses how internal communications are being implemented etc. Conclusion

The current document is primarily addressed to the project, but it can also be useful for any stakeholder in the future, building up on the knowledge and drawing to the needs and benefits of the project.

1.4

Relation of the deliverable to WP6 deliverables

The current deliverable is interrelated with other deliverables of WP6. The list below explains the dependencies and relation: • D6.3, D6.6 Initial Exploitation plan and Final Exploitation Plan (M18 and M36): These deliverables will be dedicated to the project exploitation actions, in other words, the strategy of the project as a business product and model in the relevant market, identifying the needed actions and target audiences to attract. The exploitation actions will build upon the communication actions (WP6), innovation actions (WP5) and research actions to the extent of community engagement (WP2). In conjunction with the deployments (WP5) and community-‐-‐ -‐focused trials and evaluations (WP2), this plan will identify the most promising market segments and stakeholders to address. Copyright <2016> <Rasa Uzdavinyter>, <Pantelis Kanellopoulos> ©

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan • D6.2, D6.4, D6.5 Report on dissemination activities (M12, M24, M36): These deliverables will be produced annually and will be focused on the reporting of dissemination activities carried out by Gov2U and all partners in the specific reporting period. These reports will include the progress made on the action plan and activities that are foreseen in the current deliverable as well.

1.5

Quality management

For ensuring the quality of the current document, the first ideas were presented and discussed during the Kick off meeting of the COMRADES project, as well as in teleconferences that were regularly conducted. The project partner GOV2U, prepared the initial draft of the current document and distributed it to WP6 partners for reviewing and contribution. This deliverable uses the official template of the project and language quality control has been performed.

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

External Communication

The dissemination of all information related to the project will be guided by a well-‐structured plan concerning the external communication strategy. The objective of this strategy is to identify and organize activities that will promote and disseminate the COMRADES project by the optimum way, as well as its findings and successes. The various aspects of the external communication strategy are presented in the current chapter and described as following: • • • • •

2.1

The audience (who) The intention (why) The matters (what) The media (how) The time (when)

Stakeholder identification

The identification of the target groups is one of the most crucial topics in the dissemination strategy. These groups are expected to benefit from the project and should have the opportunity to affect the project, its operations and performance. Additionally to their identification, recognizing and addressing their needs and interests enhance respectively the performance of the project and assures its continued acceptance Moreover, taking into consideration that communication is an active process when target groups have the opportunity to provide their feedback renders it more effective. In this way, the dissemination strategy becomes a cycle, from creation through to the point where the feedback is used to inform creation of the next set of dissemination products. The strategic stakeholder groupings that have been identified for the dissemination and communication of the COMRADES project are presented below: •

Citizens and Communities: activists/deployers, responders, individual citizens, civil society groups. The COMRADES core and associate partners have access to a unique combination of National European (United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium), East African (Kenya), North American (Ushahidi) and global communities (tens of thousands of Ushahidi responders from over 80 countries, over 100,000 followers on Twitter for Ushahidi and IHUB).

•

Humanitarian organisations and Professional networks. Given its interest in the humanitarian area, Ushahidi (and iHub) has a large network of relevant organisations amongst the project partners. These include: Ford Foundation, Knight Foundation, Cisco Foundation, Humanity United, MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Institute, Google, Hivos, Mozilla Foundation, Omidyar Network, Net Squared, Frontline SMS, Digital Democracy, esri, Pamoja Media, eMoksha, ICT for Peace, Small World News. OU and USFD will further disseminate the project results to WWF; one of the largest environment organisations world-‐-‐-‐wide, as well as to several Red Cross and national Policing organisations. UIA has strong connection to several humanitarian related organisations, such as the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), ACAPS, MapAction, and Nethope. These organisations aim to help communities in crises by assessing their needs, mapping the crises, and delivering information and technologies.

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan •

Scientific community and CAPS network. It is important quality to timely perform scientific dissemination activities in order to brand COMRADES as an international reference project. We will focus on authoring high-‐-‐-‐quality articles for international journals in the fields of natural language processing, human computer interaction, social science, web intelligence, crises management, and e-‐-‐-‐science. For a European project, in order to achieve the needed knowledge sharing and synergies with similar project, Comrades will actively engage with other those involved in ICT research as well as ICT industry, other CAPS projects, developing similar innovative tools in the field.

•

Standartization bodies. To ensure the effective dissemination in the field of innovation, compliance with knowledge exchange standards such as RDF and Linked Open Data, ISO TC37/SC4 Language resource management, BS 11200:2014 Crisis management, and ISO 22320:2011 Societal security – Emergency management – Requirements for incident response will be communicated by the Project coordinator (OU) due to the complexity and specifics of technological content.

•

Media: European and international media, national media from all 28 EU Member States. Media are not only stakeholders in the project but also the means to raise awareness about Comrades. Therefore media serve both as a goal and as a means.

•

Other experts: o Think-‐tanks o Research Councils and humanitarian researchers o External experts o Leaders / decision-‐makers of political parties active in humanitarian field o Academia – research & systems sciences, social sciences o Research institutes o Marketing researchers o Public Relations experts o Business strategists o Humanitarian advocacy groups

2.2

Dissemination objectives and strategy

A dissemination strategy is being developed to effectively achieve the dissemination objectives described in section 2.2.1 (Dissemination and Communication objectives) of the current chapter. The dissemination strategy is developed by GOV2U, the WP6 Dissemination leader, and it will be followed by the WP6 partners towards the achievement of the WP6 objectives at national level during the project’s lifetime

2.2.1 Dissemination and Communication objectives The main objectives of WP6 are the following: • •

Establish and maintain mechanisms for effective and timely internal and external communication Ensure the project achieves widest impact and effective exploitation of results through effective internal and external communications strategy

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan • • •

Identify methods and opportunities to ensure sustainability of the COMRADES output beyond the three year duration of the project Communicate project achievements with external stakeholders, and with other CAPS projects in particular Public facing activities including project website, social networks, event coordination

2.2.2 Dissemination and Communication strategy The purpose of the Dissemination and Communication Strategy, described in the current deliverable, is to provide an overall framework and guidelines for the successful implementation of communication and dissemination activities aligned with the project’s goals. For that reason, the strategy is composed of interrelated activities whose purpose is to inform the target groups and the potential end-‐users about the objectives of the project, the tools that will be created, the outputs/results obtained and to encourage them to get involved and to contribute by providing feedback to the project. Therefore, the Dissemination and Communication Strategy of WP6 can be grouped into three broad areas: •

•

Promotion: the dissemination actions of the project are aimed to raise awareness and visibility of the project goals, the tools the project will create, the progress of the project work and its results. Involvement: the dissemination actions of the project are aimed to further engage interested stakeholders in the project, fostering their participation in tailored workshops organized to receive their feedback on the project and its progress. Networking: effective networking is about building strong and useful relationships over time that can lead to mutual understanding and trust and which can help the raising of project’s positive reputation and take-‐up of its solution in the long term. It is clear that creating and engaging a community of interest including various stakeholders will help the project itself to boost performance, win trust and sustain acceptance beyond its timeline.

The dissemination strategy is developed with consideration and reference to the context and the overarching vision and objectives set. The action plan is accompanied by clear prioritization of tasks, roles and responsibilities of the people available (capacity) and planning, which includes regular monitoring of the impacts achieved and measuring progress towards tasks. Implementing the chosen options, i.e. taking action is vital after agreeing on an action plan. Timing is an important factor as well. In this context, the strategy foresees the following for the dissemination and communication of the project: •

COMRADES website

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan • •

•

• • •

Media: Online media, offline media, social media, dissemination through advertising using social networks. Events – conferences -‐ workshops: COMRADES project and its developments will be presented in a number of events at national, European or international level by project partners. The platform will be demonstrated in real life settings and potential end users or deployers will be able to interact. Collaboration with other CAPS projects/EC: Promotion will focus on close cooperation with projects active in similar field and developing similar solution to coordinate and communicate results. Key messages to the identified Stakeholders Groups: tailored messages will be delivered to the relevant stakeholders groups (what’s in it for me?), aiming at their engagement and strong involvement to the project. Materials: Design and creation of the project logo and website, development and distribution of the project brochure, press release, factsheet, presentation, poster, and dissemination through online newsletters. Deliverables: the public deliverables will be available on the website for knowledge and results sharing with people interested in COMRADES project, its tools and findings. Lists: Mailing list and partner networks, as well as media lists at national level. Journals, publications: Publication in relevant conferences and journals. Direct marketing.

2.2.3 The phases of dissemination process WP6 has defined the dissemination phases to effectively achieve the dissemination objectives of WP6 and better disseminate the project’s developments during its lifetime. The dissemination materials and activities will be adapted according to the needs and requirements of these phases. The phases are described below: • Initial phase (M1-‐M6): this phase is focused on establishing the project identity, raising awareness and visibility of the project and it covers: the project announcement, the launch of the project website, the design and creation of the dissemination/promotional materials, the sharing of these materials with partners and stakeholders, the strengthening of online coverage through the use of social media, the media coverage of the project, the cooperation with other EU-‐funded projects, the definition of the internal collaboration with the consortium partners and the definition of key target groups. • Second phase (M7-‐M24): during this phase WP6 will focus on further dissemination of the project objectives, widespread visibility and tailored dissemination to stakeholders groups, engagement of stakeholders as well as promotion of the project tools. WP6 will continue identifying and expanding the stakeholders’ network and establishing new contacts. The tools

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan created by the project will be disseminated by specific promotional material (brochures, press releases, marketing plans and guidelines). • Third phase (M25-‐36): this phase is the final one and will focus on the effective dissemination of the final results and solution, building on its favorable reputation. WP6 intends to present the project and its tools in major events and workshops in order to share knowledge and experience. All findings will be disseminated widely and to all possible outlets at national and European level to gain acceptance, trust and confidence.

2.2.4 Principles of stakeholder engagement (strategic & operational) Project partners should follow a clear and concise logic of engaging stakeholders, which entails the adoption of strategic and operational principles. The former refer to a higher level of understanding of stakeholder engagement. It involves identification of stakeholders’ significant issues and expectations. • • •

•

Significance: dealing with issues that are significant to the stakeholders and the aim of the project Efficiency: understanding of the concerns, views and expectations of the stakeholders Feedback: responding as appropriate and in a clear manner. Feedback concerns the action of dealing with stakeholders, for example the stakeholder engagement plan (how will the project proceed with stakeholders’ contact and engagement). Communication: Open and effective communication, exchange of ideas. Recognize the importance of engaging at the most direct level and ensure the level is appropriate for the purpose. Maximize community and stakeholder opportunities to say what they want and to provide information and feedback. Transparency: Information and feedback process. Identify the objectives of the community and stakeholders. Clearly explain the established processes and ensure that communities and stakeholders understand the principal objectives. Clearly set out the process and provisions for two-‐way feedback. Cooperation: Working together for mutually beneficial outcomes. Recognize that adequate time and resources are needed by all. Comprehensively deal with the issues and seek stakeholder input into responses. Inclusiveness: Involving stakeholders in the process. Identify and, where possible, understand community and stakeholder issues, interests, aspirations and concerns to better define what matters most to the community.

2.2.5 Methods and tools: channels of dissemination A wide range of tools and media are available and can be used for dissemination and communication. In several cases, the combination of methods and tools is possible to produce the desired results concerning the dissemination and communication of COMRADES

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan project. The most appropriate channel will be selected, depending on audience characteristics and the type of message to be communicated. Channels

Tools

Purpose

Description

Ensure project visibility, external communication, and disseminate results

The website is a versatile dissemination tool. It is necessary since it includes all the information included for all audiences. Public and partners’ private areas are included. It is regularly updated so that people keep visiting it and so that it engages more users and visitors.

Social Media Profiles

Impact making and network developing

Social media profiles play a promotional role for the project and improve visibility to a wide range of audience. Regular posts and updates on social media profiles on the projects developments, news and sharing of best practices increase the engagement of the interested audience and help to achieve interaction with the users. Also, highlighting external news that can have an impact on the project and create a discussion also produces positive results.

Newsletters

Stakeholder engagement to disseminate project news

The project newsletters are used to announce the project, develop a profile and give

Project’s website

Online

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan regular updates on its progress and developments. The newsletters will be creative making sure that all target audiences know how the project is progressing. Mailing Lists

Partners’ websites

Project Meetings

Network building, ensure sustainability

Overall stakeholder list

Ensure project visibility and disseminate results through project references

Each partner should disseminate or at least post a project description of the project to ensure greater external dissemination and wider audience impact.

Internal communication

Offline

Presentations in conferences and events

External communication with stakeholder groups

Project meetings are excellent opportunities for knowledge exchange and feedback. Frequency: 3-‐4 times a year GA meetings, involving all consortium partners will be held. National and European conferences are an important opportunity to share the project’s achievements with experts in the field and raise interest among target groups. Suggested Events’ list created by Gov2u for partners awareness; Each partner informs Gov2U on their events,

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan presentations, attendances

Marketing collaterals (brochures and posters)

Project deliverables

Marketing collateral is the collection of media used to support the promotion of a project. Both digital Raise awareness and printed Raise visibility Inform brochures and Promote posters have been created to be circulated electronically or printed for conferences or meetings. The public project deliverables explain Internal and External the project mission, objectives, strategies communication and the action plan (sustainability) to provide guidelines on to achieve the objectives. the project communication actions

Media

Drafted by WP6 leader, discussed within the consortium internally Workshops are small interactive events held to achieve a specific objective. A workshop could be used to get feedback from users on the proposed solution or to get feedback from experts on a particular issue.

Workshops

Engage with key target groups, external communication, sustainability

Press releases

A press release is a formal Dissemination of announcement of project achievements the project to the to target audiences European and international press. Press releases are

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan issued to announce important news and achievements, as well as workshops and events organized by project partners.

Featured articles

External communication of project scope of research and results, engaging with scientific community and other target groups

Collaboration with other EU-‐funded projects (CAPS)

Dissemination of project achievements to target audiences, knowledge sharing, sustainability

In addition to the dissemination of press releases, every opportunity should be taken to improve the media repercussion of the project. This includes publishing featured articles in magazines, setting up interviews with national and local media and fostering online buzz with postings. Promotion will focus on close collaboration with projects active in similar arenas

2.3

Dissemination actions

The current chapter lists the dissemination actions that describe how the strategy presented in the previous sections can be implemented and achieve the full list of dissemination objectives which were formerly described in detail.

2.3.1 Actions to achieve the dissemination objectives Dissemination activities

Dissemination tool

Actions

When

Effective and timely internal and external communication

Project Informational Website (including public website,

www.comrades-‐project.eu

Done (M3)

Ensure widest impact and effective

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan exploitation of results Ensure sustainability of the COMRADES output beyond the three year duration of the project

partners websites, Google analytics)

The website will be updated regularly taking into consideration: project progress, newly provided outputs, participation in third party events and/or events organised by partners, published articles, press releases, etc.

Communicate project achievements with external stakeholders, and with other CAPS projects in particular

http://kmi.open.ac.uk/

Public facing activities

http://www.gov2u.org

M1-‐M36

https://www.ihub.co.ke/ http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/

M1-‐M36

http://www.uia.no/en

The project website will be advertised in M1-‐M36 all promotional materials of the project.

Website Analytics will be implemented to monitor the visits to the website

M1-‐M36

Project presentation

Done (M1), updated yearly

Effective and timely internal and external communication

Project factsheet

Done (M 1), updated yearly

Ensure widest impact and effective exploitation of results

Project brochure

Done (M6), updated yearly

Ensure sustainability of the COMRADES output beyond the three year duration of the project Communicate project achievements with external stakeholders, and with other CAPS projects in particular Public facing activities

Press releases Promotional materials

(to announce major news as launch of the project, events or workshops organized for stakeholder groups, achievements, project final results and findings)

M6, then quarterly, depending on the development of the project, but 2-‐3 times a year

Project newsletter (distribute via email to subscribers, M6, published Gov2u and members of the Comrades consortium stakeholders lists, available online, posted on social media profiles of the project

M6, published quarterly

Project Poster

M7-‐M12, updated yearly

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan Effective and timely internal and external communication

Create and update media list M1-‐M36

Ensure widest impact and effective exploitation of results Ensure sustainability of the COMRADES output beyond the three year duration of the project

Media

Communicate project achievements with external stakeholders, and with other CAPS projects in particular

Send press releases to the list

M1-‐M36

Coordinate with project coordinator and partners about media enquiries such as write an article, give an interview, etc.

Public facing activities Effective and timely internal and external communication

Events list (circulate to WP8 partners, ask availability for participation in events, update regularly)

Ensure widest impact and effective exploitation of results Ensure sustainability of the COMRADES output beyond the three year duration of the project

Events -‐ Conferences

Communicate project achievements with external stakeholders, and with other CAPS projects in particular

M2, updated every half a year

Presence in several major conferences at national and European level

M1-‐M36

Give promotional materials to visitors

Per event

Public facing activities Effective and timely internal and external communication Ensure widest impact and effective

Twitter profile: @comradesproject Social media

M1-‐M36 Facebook: comradesproject

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan exploitation of results

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/comradesproject

Ensure sustainability of the COMRADES output beyond the three year duration of the project

Include social media profiles in website and promotional material

Communicate project achievements with external stakeholders, and with other CAPS projects in particular

Posts on project news and other interesting news, events, articles related to the project and policy thematic field. WP8 partners to participate in the project’s social media profiles and engage their stakeholders with the project.

Public facing activities

Effective and timely internal and external communication Deliverables to be delivered on time M1-‐M36

Ensure widest impact and effective exploitation of results Ensure sustainability of the COMRADES output beyond the three year duration of the project

Deliverables

Communicate project achievements with external stakeholders, and with other CAPS projects in particular

M1-‐M36

Write public deliverables in non technical language to be used by citizens and other stakeholders

Public facing activities Create and use the Logo Effective and timely internal and external communication Ensure sustainability of the COMRADES output beyond the three year duration of the project Public facing activities

Logo – Templates (logo, templates for ppt, newsletter, factsheet, press release, deliverable, letterhead document)

Create and use the Deliverable template Create and use the Factsheet template Create and use the Letterhead template Create and use the Newsletter template

M1-‐M36

Create and use the Presentation template

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan Create and use the Press Release template

M1-‐M36

WP6 partners to coordinate and create stakeholders lists and keep them updated

Follow up after establishing contacts Organize/ participate in events for stakeholders

regularly

2.3.2 Actions to reach the identified stakeholders Dissemination and Communication strategy of WP6 anticipates a series of actions in order to reach the identified stakeholders. The table below presents the stakeholders’ groups, the dissemination objectives that WP6 achieves by approaching and managing to engage each group, the actions and the tools for reaching the stakeholders and fulfilling the particular objective, as well as the time (when) this will be undertaken. Stakeholders’ identification and approaching is a collective and collaborative task that has to be undertaken by all WP6 partners Stakeholder group

Action

Tools

Become aware of the project, get informed

Project website

Send to stakeholders questionnaire/survey /interviews (WP2)

When

Invitations and tailored messages

Organize face-‐to-‐face meetings Participate in events Citizens and Communities

Collect contact information on stakeholders and questions asked and issues rose in conferences, meetings, etc. Follow up with the contacts established

Promotional materials (press releases, newsletters, brochures, factsheets, posters, presentations)

Advertise the website in all the project marketing materials

Events

Keep them abreast of latest

Meetings

M1-‐M36

M3-‐M36

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan developments

Mailing lists Stakeholder surveys/interview s Social media Project website

Promotional materials (press releases, Become aware of the project, get newsletters, informed WP6 partners to prepare a brochures, relevant contact list. factsheets, posters, Organize workshops, face-‐to-‐face presentations) meetings for expert groups

Humanitarian organisations and Professional networks

Collect contact information on stakeholders and questions asked and issues rose in conferences, meetings, etc.

Invitations and tailored messages

Follow up with the contacts established

Events

Advertise the website in all the project marketing materials

Meetings

Keep them abreast of latest developments

Mailing lists Stakeholder surveys/interview s

M1-‐M36

M4-‐M36

Social media Become aware of the project, get informed WP6 partners to collect contacts and create lists

Scientific community and CAPS network and other experts

Organize workshops, face-‐to-‐face meetings Participate in events organised by IT experts and humanitarian innovators Collect contact information on stakeholders and questions asked and issues rose in conferences, meetings, etc. Follow up with the contacts

Project website

M1-‐M36

Promotional materials (press releases, newsletters, brochures, factsheets, posters, presentations)

M1-‐M36

Invitations and tailored messages

M4-‐M36

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan established Business/industry stakeholders have Events access to a large amount of information, they can comment and enrich it Meetings Advertise the website in all the project marketing materials Keep them abreast of latest developments

Become aware of the project, get informed A full media list including all European and global media is available (partner input)

Media

M4-‐M36

Mailing lists

M6-‐M36

Project website

M1-‐M36

Media list

M9-‐M36

Coordinate interviews and article publications

M9-‐M36

Interact with the media: present the Promotional project, give interviews materials (press releases, Send them press releases and newsletters, newsletters brochures, Inform about events and workshops factsheets, related to the project and invite posters, them presentations)

M1-‐M36

Share contacts on social media Events, workshops M1-‐M36

Social media

M1-‐M36

2.4

Measurement of the effectiveness of Dissemination and Communication activities

It is extremely important to monitor and measure the effectiveness of the dissemination and communication activities, given that they allow the WP6 leader to estimate the effectiveness of the communication strategy and activities to the target groups, as well as the impact of the dissemination and promotion of the project. Moreover, they can consider the actions undertaken so far, the dissemination methods and tools. For this reason, an important stage of the marketing planning process is to establish targets so that progress can be monitored. Moreover, performance will be continuously monitored against predetermined targets. Planning few months ahead also serves in this direction. Surveying the opinions of strategic groupings regarding the project is also essential. Field notes (in meetings, workshops etc), meetings, Google Analytics, analysis of documents and Copyright <2016> <Rasa Uzdavinyter>, <Pantelis Kanellopoulos> ©

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan materials, research to update stakeholder lists and monitoring of press are used throughout the project duration. As far as internal communications is concerned, proof of active involvement is participation in the email discussions and in the teleconferences. The table below presents the way that the effectiveness of dissemination and communication activities can be measured by defining the effectiveness indicator, when the measurement takes place and who is responsible.

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

Internal Communication

The aim of internal communication is to make the workflow between the team members of the organizations and other entities to participate efficiently in the project. This corresponds with Consortium’s strong belief in an effective internal communication between partners, aiming to increase the partners’ understanding of the project and their obligations linked to it, as well as to encourage the enhancement of their efforts for the project’s success. WP6 consists of (iHub, University of Sheffield, University of Agder, Gov2U) partners and Gov2u is the WP6 leader.

3.1

Internal workflow

The internal communication flow will rely on the following means: •

• • • •

• •

•

For the daily implementation of tasks, exchange of information and documents, as well as for the coordination of activities, WP6 basic communication will be performed by electronic mail, regular phone calls, file transfer and conference calls. Teleconferences pertaining to dissemination activities will be held regularly, as part of the weekly conference calls where all partners participate. Face-‐to-‐face meetings and WP6 meetings will be organized whenever it is necessary. During the General Assemblies, WP6 will ask for a session dedicated to WP6 discussions on tasks and progress reporting if it is not foreseen in the agenda. A list of press focal points of all partners has been created with Gov2u’s initiative. So the press focal points translate the press releases and distribute them in their national media, while they are also responsible for the media coverage monitoring. Specific roles and responsibilities have been defined (see section below). A reporting procedure has been defined: WP6 partners are responsible for reporting on what they have done after they are finished to the WP6 leader. The reporting should be regular so that the dissemination and communication team can bring visibility to the partners’ activities, announcing them on the website (such as participation in events, speeches, published articles and interviews, etc.). A template has been created by Gov2u and distributed to the partners in order to facilitate the recording of their activities. A number of guidelines were provided to all WP6 partners regarding the performance of various activities related to the WP (media, how to write a press release, etc). Several guidelines were provided to partners for the better and effective collaboration and successful implementation of dissemination activities.

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D6.1 Dissemination and Communication Action Plan

Conclusion

The dissemination and communication strategy that is described in the current document was developed with the purpose of: • • •

raising awareness about COMRADES project, fostering a clear understanding of WP6 dissemination and communications objectives and how they will be implemented in the context of the project’s objectives, outlining how COMRADES partners will be involved in WP6, their roles and responsibilities.

The strategy presents in a clear way the project’s stakeholders and how it will offer the various identified target groups incentive to take action, get involved, and promote the project. In addition, it is clear that each partner needs to market the project, and for this reason all COMRADES partners should promote the project’s objectives, developments and results throughout the project’s lifetime and beyond. The current document provides • •

a clear definition of the goals to be reached a detailed description of the project’s target groups and tailored actions

Concluding, this document will optimize the reach out of the project and it will build a reputation that is consistent with COMPRADES project’s identity.

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