SECOVIA partners had the opportunity to meet again for the third time after the Bologna kick-off meeting and the second Steering Committee meeting in Kyustendil, Bulgaria. The work performed during the first year was discussed as well the next steps. Apart from that, our fellow partners had the chance to stroll around in Athens and among some of its most historic and picturesque sites, and taste Greek delicacies!

The first day of the meeting was focused on work performed and future plans. In particular all partners presented their activities since the last project’s meeting in Kyustendil, Bulgaria. They also highlighted the problems they face and suggested solutions which were discussed among the consortium. SECOVIA partners also presented data regarding their reporting indicators and provided relevant justifications. Finally each partner gave an analytic spending forecast for the third reporting period which concludes by the end of 2013.

Moreover Work Package Leaders gave their perspective regarding the work already done and the next steps that have to be taken. The status of each single task was discussed and the accomplished outputs were highlighted. Furthermore aspects to be improved were underlined, and related discussions were triggered.

Overall discussions followed which mainly revolved around (a) the feasibility of designing a transnational Cloud provider and its viable alternatives, (b) the project’s disseminations events , (c) the difficulties some partners face to make contracts with experts due to political, regulatory and bureaucratic factors present in most of the countries of the South East Europe area, (d) the difficulties partners face to attract stakeholders and keep them committed, (e) the structure and the function of the consortium.

During the second day of the meeting, the overall challenges and solutions were summarized by the Project coordinator who expressed optimism and confidence regarding the project’s evolution and the quality of its expected results. Suggestions were made regarding potential risks conflicts and delays which in turn were put to vote and decisions were made.

In conclusion, during the SECOVIA meeting in Athens all partners exchanged interesting ideas about ongoing and future work and set more concrete objectives to achieve through the next months. We would like to thank all the SECOVIA partners for attending and contributing to this constructive meeting!