• WP0: Overall Management and Coordination of the project
• WP1: Pre-selection of an initial set of indicators
• WP2: Stakeholders dialogue to evaluate and select a shortlist of indicators
• WP3: Practical application
• WP4: Defining the foundations of a European Port Observatory
• Schedule of work

Task 0.1.: Technical project management and quality assurance

• Planning and scheduling of activities, meetings and deliveries
• Monitoring the progress of the project according to the work plan
• Ensuring the efficient exchange of information between consortium partners
• Review of deliverables before they are released

Task 0.2.: Financial and administrative project management

• Management of financial and administrative aspects of the consortium,
• Monitoring the progress of the project according to the budget and resources

Task 0.3.: Elaboration of progress reports

Deliverables:
D0-1: Progress report after 12 months
D0-2: Progress report after 24 months

Task 1.1.: Definition of the scope of the project Definition and justification of the five categories selected that will form the basis for the typology of indicators. This task will also analyse the interrelations between the categories.

• Market trends and structure
• Socio-economic impact:
• Environmental performance:
• Logistic chain and Operational performance
• Governance (including financial,..):

Task 1.2.: Conceptual framework of the project This task will analyse the potential uses and users of port performance indicators (at EU level) as well as constraints and limitations associated. This task will mainly focus on the following applications of port performance indicators:

• Internal use (Self-improvement of the industry)
• Competitive use (when used by ports and terminal customers/users)
• Policy-making at different levels (local, regional, national, EU level) (e.g. measurement of policy measures, to set long-term objectives)
• Public and social awareness/acceptance of ports/terminals
• Benchmarking of the European Port System performance in a global context
• Anticipating trends/economic cycles/etc.. (e.g. economic crisis)

Task 1.3.: Pre-selection of a limited set of indicators
Based on the review of existing research material and industry applications of port performance indicators, for each category, partners will pre-select a number of indicators.

Task 1.4.: Categorisation of indicators
This task is aimed to define and categorise potential indicators for each of the five categories while analysing their nature and defining what they are measuring.

• The inventory will distinguish the nature of the indicator, whether it is considered statistical data such as input (e.g. cranes) and output (e.g. port throughput) indicators or performance indicators which typically involve both, for example in the form of ratios (e.g. efficiency of land).
• Secondly, for each indicator the typology will also make a distinction between efficiency and effectiveness when discussing performance measurement.

Deliverables:
D1-1: A typology of indicators based on the following broad categories: market trends and structure, socio-economic impact, environmental performance, operational performance and governance. The typology will provide a definition of the indicators in terms of their nature (statistic data vs. indicator in the form of ratios of input and output data) and in terms of the impact they are measuring.

Task 2.1.: Assessment of the implementation of the indicators The compiled indicators will be assessed and validate by the two kind of stakeholders panel (direct and multi-stakeholders) in terms of:

• EU Relevancy
• Data availability
• Transparency
• Comparability
• Public and private stakeholder requirements /acceptance

It will result in a Matrix of indicators containing the results of the evaluation.

Indicator information			Evaluation criteria Result				Result
Code	Indi- cator	Definition	Data Availability	Trans- parency	Compar- ability	Stakeholders requirements /acceptance	Result

Task 2.2.: Identification of obstacles and pitfalls for the implementation of the indicators and of possible solutions.

Deliverables:
D2-1: An assessment of the indicators within the typology in the form of a matrix containing the results of the evaluation as regards their suitability to be implemented at EU level (in terms of EU relevance, sustainability, data availability, transparency, comparability, public stakeholders’ requirements and acceptance). Obstacles and pitfalls for a European implementation of the indicators as well as potential solutions will also be listed
D2-2: A stakeholders’ widely accepted set of relevant and commonly defined indicators able to assess the impact of ports on society, economy and environment uniformly across the EU.

Task 3.1.: Practical application of findings though a pilot project The results of the former tasks will be validated through a pilot project at EU-wide scale. The pilot participants will be selected so that they reasonably represent the sector’s characteristics thereby allowing credible demonstration, evaluation and validation of potential applications of the selected performance indicators.

Deliverables:
D3-1: Pilot results

Task 4.1.: Defining the concept of a European Port Observatory Based on the results of the previous work packages, this task will analyse and define the possible purpose, uses and characteristics of a European Port Observatory so as to clearly define its features:

• Mission
• Scope
• Users
• Content (input : data and indicators to be collected or calculated and output: )
• Operation

Task 4.2.: Analysis and definition of the implementation requirements
This task will analyse and define the process, data and technologic requirements linked to the functioning of a European Port Observatory so as to clearly define will cover the following areas of interest:

• Data collection: the data/indicators to be collected/calculated and the data collection process, the
• Reporting: reporting (e.g. who will get access, how to organize, IT-requirements, etc..),
• Governance: data protection, maintenance, where to base the observatory, funding, etc..

Task 4.3.: Long-term vision of the port Observatory
This task will analyse possible synergies with existing and future knowledge clusters and think-tanks.

Task 4.4.: Elaboration of education, training and dissemination tools
The findings of the various work packages will be configured into a series of education and training tools:

• seminars (for senior managers/decision makers)
• workshops (for port staff) materials.

Deliverables:
D4-1: Report with general recommendations for the set up of a future European Port Observatory
D4-2: Project Report (Summarising findings)
D4-3: Education and training tools (to use in seminars and workshops)

Duration of the operation: 24 months

Action plan:

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