Horizontal Coordinator Communications – FWC EASME/LIFE/2018/001

The LIFE programme is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental and climate policy and legislation by co-financing projects with European added value. The overall objective of this FWC is to provide the following services to the Contracting Authorities:

• Assistance for the LIFE programme management, financial and technical support for the monitoring of ongoing projects supported by the LIFE+/LIFE programme (action grants and operating grants) and the new LIFE projects (action grants and operating grants) that will be selected under the LIFE calls for proposals, expected to be published in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
• Assistance in the overall analyses and reporting of the results (in terms of environmental, climate and economic impacts) as well as of the policy implications by individual projects, by strand, by year, by theme, by Member State and by the whole programme.
• Assistance and technical support for the communication activities of the LIFE programme.

NEEMO EEIG is responsible for the monitoring of all LIFE projects (Operational and Action grants) that receive funding from the LIFE Programme.

Our team also deals with main communication aspects of the LIFE programme.

NEEMO EEIG is a legal entity that comprises 9 partner companies spread across Europe,. The 9 partner companies have a long lasting experience and expertise in the monitoring of LIFE projects and in communicating about the LIFE programme. The EEIG headquarters is in Freiburg (Germany). The Coordination Team, responsible for the technical coordination of the contract, and the Communications and Events Team are based in Brussels.

In the frame of this 4 years framework contract (January 2019 to December 2022), we have reinforced our EEIG through a partnership with Ecologic, Ernst & Young, IMC and GOPAcom.

While EY provides expertise in financial monitoring and business-related matters, Ecologic supports NEEMO by providing adhoc expertise and assists us in the implementation of e-learning module that are hosted under an IT platform hosted and managed at IMC.

GOPAcom is providing additional and complementary expertise in the fields of communication and events organisations.

The staff from NEEMO partner AEIDL and GOPAcom, involved in this contract, are part of the so-called Communication and Events Team (ComEvenT).

The Coordination team is composed of 1 General Coordinator (GCO) and 7 Thematic and/or Horizontal Coordinators (TCO/HCO) in the following areas:

• Nature and biodiversity
• Environment and resource-efficiency
• Climate action;
• NGO grants, good governance and data management;
• Communication;
• Business related activities.
• Process and quality

The coordinators shall:

• Provide coordination in their topic;
• Organise regular meetings with the Contracting Authority to report on main thematic outcomes from the overall projects implementation and other activities;
• Supervise and manage the timely delivery of quality work in the specific field falling under his/her responsibility;
• Identify risks and propose solutions to problems, bottlenecks, etc.; and
• Support the General Coordinator in facilitating practical arrangements for any required meetings, event and missions of the team.

In addition, in specific fields the Horizontal Coordinators shall:

In the field of communication, provide input to the definition of communication strategies, as well as, the planning of campaigns and activities, and assess and evaluate their impact.

The General Coordinator, the Thematic and Horizontal Coordinators constitute the Central Team.

They must work full time for the framework contract (220 working days/year).

The Central Team is based in Brussels.

What we offer:

A challenging and motivating position with an attractive remuneration based on the possibility to work within a dynamic and multicultural team in the heart of Brussels.

Key responsibilities include:

• Planning of all communication activities according to the requirements of the clients;
• Coordination of the Communication and Events team, which consists of communication experts from different companies;
• Quality assurance of all activities of the Communication and Events team, including quality control of outputs and assessment of the performance and impact of communication activities.

Key tasks include:

• Provide general coordination, planning, monitoring, assessment of performance, assessment of LIFE communications impact and reporting on communication tasks;
• Participate in events (e.g. LIFE Programme Kick-off meetings) organised by the Contracting Authority and undertake any necessary communication work;
• Organise and participate in regular meetings both internal (within NEEMO EEIG, as necessary) and with the Contracting Authority to report on on-going activities/assess operations and impact and elaborate on new ideas to improve LIFE communications and introduce relevant measures. For the communication work specific meetings with the Contracting Authority must be held every 1-2 months. For these meetings, annotated agendas will be prepared and minutes of these meetings will be taken;
• Supervise the quality management system (quality assurance/quality control) and performance of the Communication and Events Team including the timely delivery of communication outputs falling under his/her responsibility;
• Identify risks and propose solutions to problems, bottlenecks, etc.;
• Work closely with the NEEMO EEIG General Coordinator and the other Thematic and Horizontal Coordinators;
• Assess performance of ComEvenT experts and propose measures to develop skills/build communications capacity to communication experts. Also assess NEEMO EEIG communication tools and systems and suggest improvements;
• Together with the GCO, plan staffing levels in cooperation with AEIDL and GOPAcom Contract Managers;
• Provide oversight and direction to the staff in the operating unit in accordance with NEEMO's policies and procedures;
• Lead the staff to meet NEEMO's expectations for productivity, quality, and goal accomplishment;
• Maintain transparent communication. Appropriately communicate organization information through ComEvenT meetings, one-on-one meetings, and appropriate email and regular interpersonal communication.

Key objectives include:

• Increase the visibility of the LIFE Programme using all available media channels;
• Promoting funding opportunities to attract a sufficient number of high-quality project proposals;
• Showcasing successful projects to encourage dissemination, replication and transfer of project results;
• Highlighting programme results to foster the design, update and implementation of environmental and climate policies at EU, national, regional and local levels.

General Qualifications

The Communication Coordinator must meet the following selection criteria:

• a Diploma in the field of communication or if no diploma, a minimum of 8 years of experience in a public relations agency or communication consultancy
• a professional experience of at least 5 years as communication director/senior consultant in designing, carrying out and evaluating communication strategies and EU wide communication campaigns, supported by a diploma in the field of communication or if no diploma, an additional 3 years of experience in a public relations agency or communication consultancy;
• a C2 level of written and spoken English according to the Common European Framework of reference for languages and an excellent command of at least one other official EU language;
• At least 2 years of experience in coordinating the work of small/sizeable groups of experts (5 or more staff members or experts).

Evidence to correlate the above requirements: CV and educational degree or past relevant experience and a language certificate or past relevant experience or mother tongue.

Additional Qualifications required for this position:

• Strong ability to prepare and make impact presentations in public, using images, graphs, infographics, video, animation, and any other state-of-the-art technology;
• Excellent knowledge of standard computer applications (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet, etc).;
• Excellent organisational and problem solving skills;
• Cooperative and supportive team player;
• Strong sense of responsibility, commitment and co-operation;
• Experiences in managing complex team set ups with more than one client;
• Professional experience in working in a multicultural, international and multidisciplinary environment.

Assets:

• Post-graduate degree in a field relevant to the position (e.g. communication/visual and digital media, etc.);
• Good understanding of EU Environmental and Climate Change policy;
• Excellent knowledge of social media tools and techniques, including the ability to formulate strategies and to measure reach and impact of social media campaigns;
• Experience of graphic design/publishing IT tools (e.g. Publisher, Adobe CS, etc.) and website content management;
• Knowledge and experience of the operation of European institutions.
• Ideally the candidates should be able to start in March/April 2019.

Other:

Availability to travel abroad (when necessary) for short stays.

How to apply:

To apply for this position, please send your Europass CV, a cover letter in English explaining your motivation and how you match the job description, to: g.leMenaheze@prospect-cs.be

Closing date: 27/02/2019.

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted after the closing date.