Analyzing, improving, and progressing

Currently, the ITER Organization employs 337 people including five Postdoctoral Fellows sponsored by the Principality of Monaco, and we are growing further. Last week we published another 76 new jobs ranging from Contracts Administrator to Remote Handling Engineer. I can only encourage everyone, especially the teams in the Domestic Agencies, to spread the news and to encourage interested candidates to apply. Working for the ITER Project is a great and unique opportunity.

Talking about staffing, the Contracts Division will soon get more support in order to speed up and improve procedures. We all agree that the system is not working satisfactorily yet. We are analyzing the workflow to identify bottlenecks and we will reorganize our team correspondingly. We are determined to improve things and we are capable of doing so.

The Finance Division team is deeply involved with preparing all the financial reports and statements necessary for the big meetings that lie ahead: the Management Advisory Committee in May and the ITER Council in June. Also, in April, the Financial Audit Board will once again come together in Cadarache for its first audit of the 2008 ITER Organization Financial Statements.

We are gradually sailing in calmer waters with our computer-aided administration tool, SAP. The system is stabilizing and a number of procedures such as payroll, procurements and appraisals can now be processed smoothly via SAP. The SAP team continues to work hard to expand the usage of SAP and reporting.

For our Logistics team, 2008 was a busy year during which it was able to move more than 220 people to the new Headquarters Building and at the same time rearrange offices for another 200 people back on the CEA site. It looks like 2009 will also be very busy, launching the contracts for the maintenance of the buildings independently from the CEA structure. A new office building will be going up this year to be shared with the European Domestic Agency "Fusion for Energy"; this will require a lot of effort from the Logistics team. Finally, the team is involved in the modernization and extension of the Salle de la Fernière—the meeting room at the Château de Cadarache.

The challenges involved in building up an international organization like ITER are immense. I look to each of you for your help in executing and delivering the plans in place.