The Legal form of RETURN “multi-Risk sciEnce for resilienT commUnities undeR a changiNg climate” Partnership is a Foundation and it is based on a Hub&Spoke architecture.

There are 25 funding members of the Hub, among which Public Universities, Public Research Institutions, and other Entities, that will participate actively in the governance of the Partnership through the governance bodies illustrated below.

It is worth to mention that the Regional Agency For Prevention, Environment And Energy Of Emilia-Romagna, is partner of the project but it is not a member of the Foundation.

The Hub performs the management and administrative accounting control on its expenses and on those that are incurred by the Spokes, it is responsible for the partnership and supervises the correct implementation of the work plan and its compliance with the milestones and time plans. Furthermore, the Hub will ensure the accomplishment of the macro-objectives collaborating with the Spoke Leaders, which will manage the relationships with the Spoke Affiliates and realize a synergistic interconnection with the territory, by exploiting the whole range of available measures, including the Open Calls during the project lifetime.

The Spoke is organized and regulated by agreements among the parties. The Spoke Leader has the task of carrying out the project activities and reporting to the Hub. It will include the overall management and coordination (i.e., governance) of the “Spoke Affiliates”, which are other existing autonomous legal entities contributing to part of the Spoke activities depending on their competencies, as well as monitoring the scientific and technical progress of the entire Spoke, the knowledge management, other innovation related activities (e.g., dissemination and exploitation, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and the relationship with the Hub. The Spoke Leader is supported by one of its affiliates with the role of “Co-Leaders”.