Scientists appointed to find new members for ERC’s Governing body

Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, has appointed a group of scientists to identify new members for the governing council of the European Research Council (ERC).

The committee will identify new members for the staged renewal of the Scientific Council membership due in February 2011, and will maintain a pool of candidates for future replacements of Scientific Council members thereafter.

The committee consists of:

• Eero Vuorio (chair), Director of Biocentre Finland

• Ann Dowling, Head of the Department of Engineering, Cambridge University

• Andreu Mas-Colell, Economist, Department of Economics and Business, Pompeu Fabra University

• Gretty Mirdal, Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen

• Arnold Schmidt, Professor Emeritus at the Photonics Institute of the TUWien

• Maciej Zylicz, Head of the Department of Molecular Biology, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw

ERC President Helga Nowotny said setting up of an independent committee, is “crucial” to the “continued credibility and high standing” of the ERC’s Scientific Council.

The committee met for the first time this week and agreed on an initial statement on how it will go about its business. It will consult the main organisations of the European research community and invites other representative organisations, who wish to propose names of candidates, to send their contributions to the following email address: [email protected]

The Committee will meet throughout this autumn and report to the European Parliament and to the Council of the European Union. The names of the new Scientific Council members will be announced in February 2011.