The Coordinator is responsible for the management of COMBINE and the liaison with the European Commission on behalf of the consortium. He is also the principle contact to the financial administration at the MPI-M. If and when necessary he can propose to convene full Scientific Steering and Executive Committee meetings. He reports to the Chairman of the Governing Board.

The Project Office, established at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, is lead by the Coordinator and is comprised of the Coordinator, the Project Manager (PM) and the Administrative and Financial Manager (AFM). The main duties of the PM are to assist the Coordinator in the day-to-day monitoring of progress of the Project and to maintain the project communication instruments: Web site with public and restricted areas, mailing lists and newsletters. The AFM assists the Coordinator in the preparation of the financial reporting and in the financial actions between the Commission and the project partners.

The Project Office has the responsibility of overall coordination and management of the project, including:

• Communication of all information in connection with the COMBINE project to the Commission.
• Day to day coordination of the project; monitors project planning and progress, follow-up of planning schedule, issue reminders for task initiation or completion, deliverables;
• Identify promptly and anticipate problems, propose action to remedy;
• Communication within the project, to users, and to the general public;
• Organization of meetings and internal reviews;
• Preparation of the quality control and documentation plan;
• Coordination with other EU – funded or other international projects;
• Overall administrative and financial management,
• Management of consortium-level legal and ethical issues

Implementation of the plans under knowledge and innovation-related activities, intellectual property issues and Gender Action Plan will be under the responsibility of the Coordinator.