Members of the European Research Area Board announced

The European Commission has announced  the names of 22 members of the European Research Area Board (ERAB), who are charged with advising on the creation of the European Research Area.

Announcing the names, Janez Potočnik, Commissioner for Science and Research, said, “The debate on the Green Paper on the future of science in Europe has shown that there is strong need and support for making research in Europe more European. This can only be done in partnership with Member States, the research community, business and many other stakeholders.

“I count on the new ERAB to advise me and the Commission  on how we can facilitate the development of a true European Research Area.”

One of ERAB’s key tasks will be to provide the Commission with an annual report on the state of the European Research Area.

ERAB succeeds and builds on the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB), whose mandate ran from 2001 to 2007. In its Green Paper The European Research Area: New Perspectives the Commission announced a reform of EURAB in order to enhance its role.

The members of ERAB, who have been appointed in a personal capacity, were proposed by an independent committee, consisting of Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former President of the Republic of Latvia, Andrew Dearing, Secretary General of the European Industrial Research Management Association, and Claudie Haigneré, former French Minister of Research and New Technologies (2002–4) and European Affairs (2004–5).

The 22 nominees to the European Research Area Board:

Reinhold Achatz, Vice-president, Siemens Corporate Research and Technologies (DE)
Robert Aymar, Director General, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN),(CH)
Lajos Balint, Director of International Relations, National Information Infrastructure Development Institute (HU)
Jean J Botti, Chief Technical Officer, EADS (DE)
Adelheid Ehmke, President, European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS (BE)
Frank Gannon, Director General, Science Foundation Ireland (IRL)
Barbara Haering, Chief Executive Officer , ECONCEPT (CH)
David King, Director, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment (UK)
Leif Kjaergaard, Chief Technology Officer Danisco A/S (DK)
Marja Makarow, Chief Executive Officer, European Science Foundation (FR)
Karol Musiol, Rector, Jagiellonian University, Krakow (PL)
Zaneta Ozolina, University of Latvia (LV)
Maria Cristina Pedicchio, Faculty of Sciences, Università di Trieste (IT)
Alain Pompidou, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (FR)
Carlos Maria Romeo-Casabona, Director, Inter-University Chair in Law and the Human Genome, University of Deusto (ES)
Unni Steinsmo, President, Chief Executive Officer, SINTEF (NO)
Lena Treschow Torell, President, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (SE)
Jan Van Den Biesen, Vice-president, Philips Research (NL)
Georg Winckler, President, European University Association (BE)
John Wood, Principal, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London (UK)
Ingrid Wünning Tschol, Head of Science and Research, Robert Bosch Stiftung (DE)
Nüket Yetis, acting President, TÜBITAK (TR)