ERC’s governance in limbo as new Council members are appointed

The European Research Council (ERC) this week appointed new members to its governing Scientific Council and said these experts will start receiving payments, as recommended in an independent review of the ERC. The change is being introduced against a background of uncertainty in the running of the ERC as a whole, with a task force appointed in December to yet again examine the structure and governance of the ERC after another recommendation of the independent review – that a single director be appointed -  was reversed.

Such governance issues were a key component of the July 2009 review, which assessed the ERC’s structures and mechanisms and made recommendations to help ensure that the body, formally set up in 2007, can continue to identify and fund Europe’s leading researchers.

The report commented on the amount of time dedicated by the 22 volunteers on the Scientific Council and said, “Proper forms of financial compensation and administrative support should be identified in the near future.” The introduction of fees for Scientific Council members attending plenary sessions are intended to deal with this concern.

But there has been a u-turn in the response to another important recommendation that the ERC recruit a new director to merge the roles of Secretary General, held at the time by Andreu Mas-Colell; and the Director of the executive arm of the organisation held by Jack Metthey, to reconcile the scientific and administrative roles within the overall structure.

The job was advertised early last year with a deadline of 5 March 2010, and an appointment was expected a few months later. But in a statement published on the website in November, the ERC said, “The two functions will continue to co-exist in the present framework.” The Council is now advertising for a new Secretary-General to replace Mas-Colell, who resigned last year. Pablo Amor is the acting Director of the ERC Executive Agency.

Following that announcement, a task force was appointed just before Christmas, to once again look at how the ERC should be structured. The task force, chaired by the Director General of DG Research and Innovation, Robert-Jan Smits, will look at how the what needs to be done, “to guarantee the long term stability of the ERC structure.” Other task force members include Commission officials and representatives from the ERC Scientific Council, including its President Helga Nowotny, and two external members, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former President of Latvia, who chaired the July 2009 review panel, and Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, former ERC Secretary General.

The new members of the Scientific Council announced this week, and who will take up their posts on 2 February are:

• Nicholas Canny, National University of Ireland, Galway (IE)
• Tomasz Dietl, Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
• Daniel Dolev, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
• Timothy Hunt, London Research Institute (UK)
• Mart Saarma, University of Helsinki (FI)
• Anna Tramontano, University of Rome La Sapienza (IT)
• Isabelle Vernos, Centre Regulació Genómica, Barcelona (ES)