4. Draw up activity reports (budget, resources, workforce, etc.)

In order to have a global vision, the watch unit has a provisional budget which can be drawn up by taking several cost items into consideration:

• costs relating to software tools, i.e. licenses, subscriptions, maintenance and updates;

• costs relating to the acquisition of external services such as consultancy or the commissioning of specific studies;

• the cost of purchasing information (subscriptions, magazines, access to certain databases, etc.);

• the cost in human time, i.e. in FTE (full-time equivalent), to be multiplied by the number of collaborators and referents.

In particular, this approach makes it easier to decide whether to outsource or subcontract certain services instead of running them directly...