IRMCo Malta : http://www.environmentalmalta.com/

IRM Co Ltd. is a “knowledge-driven” e-company set up in 1993 by Anna Spiteri and Dirk De Ketelaere. The company's expertise is focused on conducting research in various environmental and related disciplines. Up to date, IRMCo has been awarded 15 EU sponsored research projects mainly under International Cooperation and Innovation programmes. This has provided us with long experience of working closely with several European, North African and, most recently, also South American universities and other institutions.

Through these EU funded projects, IRMCo has had the opportunity to research and develop innovative techniques to interact with various types of stakeholders; such as introducing ‘Role Playing’ in ‘water conflict’ situations in the Middle East.

At IRMCo we have designed communication strategies, as well as methodological approaches, and toolkits for participatory involvement and collaborative learning.  IRMCo took a lead-role on stakeholder involvement in FP4-Colasu, FP5-OPTIMA, FP6-PLEIADeS, and is currently with the lead-role on Knowledge Management in FP7-ProMine. IRMCo also developed methodological guidelines for Ideas Generation using Creative Thinking Techniques in research projects supporting industry such as FP6-ITE, FP6-F2F and currently FP7-Transbonus. And in October 2010, we are signing, another FP7 project, titled SIRIUS, in which we are taking the lead role in conducting Public Participatory GIS in 8 pilot areas. 

Key persons in EuroBroadMap

Anna Spiteri is the Managing Director of IRMCo, with several years experience in working and promoting gender issues alongside her scientific research. Amongst her various activities she has been a leading member of the Maltese committee drafting the Gender Equality Act in 1999. She was selected by the Euro-Med Forum for Women to draw up draft guidelines for a new European-Mediterranean regional programme intended to reinforce the participation of Women in the economy, launched in 2004. She was the gender co-ordinator of the FP6-PLEIADeS research project during 2006-2009. She is also an evaluator and a reviewer for GMES projects for DG Enterprise. As coordinator of the Gender Working Group, she is responsible for the drawing up of the Gender Action Plan within EuroBroadMap.

Dirk De Ketelaere is a Senior Consultant with IRMCo. Prior to joining IRMCo, he first lectured at the Free University Brussels, followed by lectureships at the Universities of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and Malta respectively.  His main teaching subjects included ‘probability and statistics’ and ‘mathematical modeling’.  He has also been facilitator of training courses on Project Cycle Management using the Logical Framework methodology, designed on the basis of over 15 years’ of practical experience in submission and follow-up on EU funded research projects. 

Josianne Vella is engaged with IRMCo, specifically to conduct research in EU funded projects on innovative stakeholder techniques, and to collect data through surveys. She was previously employed with the Malta Council for Science and Technology and has recently completed her Master’s degree in Cultural Management at Northumbria University. She designed methodological guidelines for Idea Generation Events in the FP6-F2F research project which are currently being applied also in the FP7-TransBonus research project.

Maurice Said has spent almost three years working with disaster victims and civil war refugees in post-tsunami Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu in southern India.  During this time he conducted research on post-disaster and post-civil war vulnerability in southern Sri Lanka, with particular attention given to the effects of NGOs on local community structures. He has also conducted independent research among Tamil refugees in the Dharmapuri area of southern India.  He has an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Malta. 

The tasks:

• WP1 Consortium management (Gender Working Group)
• WP2 Mental maps of students (Southern neighbourhood countries)  
• WP3 Migrants and borders (Survey on migrant's perception in Tunisia Malta Italy)
• WP6 Integrated visions
• WP7 Valorisations (Gender results)