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Code of Conduct of
Member Consultants

Introduction
The Members of the Association Quali4EU-Consultants committed to Quality e.V. (hereinafter Association) by joining the Association obligate themselves to observe the rules laid down in this Code of Conduct. Over and above that, they assure that the information about their professional experience, which they submitted for their entry, are complete and true.

The membership can be withdrawn, if the aforementioned information turns out to be completely or partly inaccurate, or if the respective member violates the rules of this Code of Conduct.

Quality consulting must be based on confidence of the client in its consultant and has to be performed applying the rules of professional Ethics. The principles of cooperation and our understanding of professional ethics are hereinafter described in more detail.

1. Principles and professional Responsibility
1.1 The client must be in a position to rely on the consultant performing his work objectively, honestly and in the best interest of the client. This shall apply already during the acquisition phase.
1.2 The consultant will maintain transparency and honesty not only in relation to his clients, but also towards his employees, the members of the Association, cooperation partners, subcontractors, the funding provider (e.g. the European Commission) and the public.
1.3 The consultant works for the client only within the framework of his proven competence. In cases where the client’s need for consulting exceeds this framework, the consultant will call in another consultant out of the network with adequate qualification, as far as there is no specific interest against it.
1.4 The cooperation of the consultants in the network is based on mutual transparency, trust and the will to cooperate with the members of the network.
1.5 Conditions for the cooperation in the network are confidentiality of exchanged information and to strictly respect intellectual property like e.g. ideas, drawn up documents, methodologies and similar items. The use of such immaterial assets is only allowed with the consent of and naming of the author. If information forming part of a work, e.g. of a tutorial document or a project proposal, is generated jointly by several partners, these partners may use the result without consulting each other.
1.6 The consultant will avoid in his work conflicts of interest and will in good time point out to possibly affected clients potential conflicts of interest which might arise from his work for others.
1.7 The consultant will in no way give the impression that he is speaking or acting in the name of the Association, if he is not expressly authorised by the executive committee
1.8 The consultant shall disclose in advance of entry to the Association any membership in comparable organisations. Should such membership imply a conflict of interest regarding the Association, this excludes the membership in this Association.

2. Quality of Consulting
2.1 The consultant makes sure, that the client will be advised comprehensively and oriented to the result. If required, use will be made of the experience of other members of the Association unless there is a conflict of interest. If a member consulting company entrusts internally employees with tasks in the framework of the consulting, they will ensure, that these employees have or will be supervised by others who posses the necessary high qualification and that they observe the principles of this Code of Conduct.
2.2 The consultant will ensure that consulting undertaken includes all necessary fields of experience taking into account the complexity and interdisciplinarity of the projects. He will recognise the limits of his own experience and will in these cases engage other consultants of the Association with the required knowledge.
2.3 The consultant offers to assist the client in a comprehensive and integral way. As far as the client agrees, assistance may be offered not only during the application process but also in implementing the project and to exploitation of the results. This assistance comprises consulting with respect to strategic, technical scientific, administrative and financial aspects as well as project- and technology-management and exploitation. Regarding legal aspects juridical expertise may be included.
2.4 The consultant will do nothing which will limit the freedom of the client, to award at his own discretion orders to other consultants.
2.5 Specific professional experience and further education, multi-cultural awareness and the ability to communicate and work in interdisciplinary teams are preconditions to be a Quali4EU consultant.
2.6 The consultant is continuously striving to broaden and improve his knowledge and abilities and in particular to keep his knowledge up to date regarding current promotion programs.

3. Cooperation between Quali4EU Consultants
3.1 The cooperation between the consultants is in principal voluntary. It is strived for reasonably supplementing the strengh of the individuals in dealing with complex projects. Professional synergies shall be utilised with a view to the common target.
3.2 The consultants shall cooperate in an open and fair manner. If one consultant recognises weaknesses of another, he will approach the latter about that in a constructive way.
3.3 The consultants shall not try to take clients from each other in an unprofessional manner.
3.4 If a consultant has identified a potential client and comes to the conclusion, that the cooperation of other consultants in this potential project would be useful, he will invite at his own discretion other consultants with the necessary skills out of the network to cooperate in this project. Such cooperation will be agreed in writing. The cooperation can either be carried out as a subcontractor relationship or in form of a consortial partnership. As a rule the partner, who acquired the project, will take the leadership or coordination in such partnership. Should the client deem another partner more suited for this task, the partner, who has had the first contact to the client, will be prepared to give up the leadership in favour of the partner preferred by the client. In this case, however, he will be entitled to compensation in the sense of a finder’s fee. In case that only in the course of carrying out an order it turns out, that the cooperation of other consultants is necessary, the proceeding will be according to the foregoing.
3.5 If a consultant comes to know about a potential client’s need for assistance, however is not himself interested in making an offer or taking part in the project, he will make the case known to the Association. In these cases for proceeding further the latest version of “Rules for Management of Requests” shall apply.

4. General Rules of Conduct
4.1 The cooperation of the consultants in the Association is based on an open and trustful communication, as well as mutual transparency. The consultants obligate themselves to the foregoing and to mutual assistance, in order to guarantee the high quality of consulting aimed at.
4.2 The consultants will not commit any acts being immoral or contrary to fair competition and no acts to the disadvantage of the Association or of other consultants.
4.3 All consultants protect the good reputation of the Association internally and externally and feel obligated to the success of the Association.
4.4 No consultant will use knowingly and without permission intellectual property of a colleague in his commercial activity. In particular he will not carry out or order work which is based on proposals worked out by other colleagues, except their consent has been given expressly or by implication.
4.5 All promises made by a consultant in the course of contracting or carrying out of projects, orally or in writing, have to be really correct and to be observed.
4.6 The members obligate themselves to treat all information, documents and experiences exchanged in the Association as confidential.
4.7 Ideas and concepts included or brought into projects within the framework of the Association are regarded as confidential information and are kept in confidence by all members.
4.8 Information from and about clients will only be transmitted to other members with the consent of the clients. All members obligate themselves to keep in confidence all information from and about clients.

5. Disciplinary Measures
5.1 In case of violation of this Code of Conduct the joint arbitration committee according to § 13 of the Regulations of the Association will decide about appropriate measures.