Partner Conflict Resolution. The term “conflicting partners” is used but should be read in the sense of a single partner entering conflict with a governing or management board decision. As D4Science-II is a collaborative project, its main concern is the maintenance of best relationships among its project’s members as organizations, teams, and individuals. Thus the general policy of conflict resolution is to suggest the conversation and smooth diminishment of any disagreement or concern without reaching the top-level project’s instruments for final action. As such, voting, also escalated among different boards, is left aside as the last resort of resolution. Although it is a major concern of the project that even voted decisions are taken unanimously, it is enough that 2/3 approval is required for a decision to be taken. Yet, even in the case of non-unanimous voting it is considered that decisions have to be generally welcomed, thus post-voting deliberations are suggested, if they can drive a full agreement under the light of the majority- favoured voted decision. Within this conflict resolution chain, graphically depicted in the following diagram, the Members General Assembly (MGA) is the ultimate decision-making body that a decision can be taken within the project’s limits. This board comprises one representative per partner. The Project Management Board (PMB) is the second board usually involved within this escalation procedure. Figure 3 – Conflict Resolution Flow In Figure 3 there are two main paths of conflict resolution: • The light coloured path is followed for topics concerning conflicts that their major factor is on technical or work aspects; • The dark coloured path is followed for topics that are mainly concerned about administration, bilateral relationships and financial issues. A third path is sketched by curved arrows is an exceptional path described below. Committees are drawn with rounded rectangles (dark/blue rectangles represent voting committees) while individuals are drawn with light coloured ovals. It has to be mentioned the means of communication (email, phone, meetings) are indicative and demonstrate best practices of the past rather than formal rules. In detail a need for Conflict Resolution can start at any node of the diagram. In the following, the details of each action are presented:
