The task force set up by the European Commission to look into the future shape of the European Research Council (ERC) has recommended abolishing the post of ERC Secretary General from 2014.
The task of acting as the ERC Scientific Council’s permanent presence in Brussels will instead become the responsibility of the ERC’s president, which would become a full-time position.
To further reinforce the ERC’s standing, the role of the Director of the Executive Agency should be enhanced, the task force says. While the president chairs the ERC’s Scientific Council, which sets the organisation’s scientific and research policy, the Director of the Executive Agency controls the 330 staff who administer ERC funding.
The task force recommends that the ERC should remain as an executive agency, saying this is the best way for it to deliver a major contribution to the forthcoming Horizon 2020 programme. At the same time there should be more delegation of scientific and administrative responsibilities from the Commission to the ERC.
“The task force’s report shows consensus on the ERC’s success so far, on its strengths and weaknesses and on the need for both broad continuity and for limited - but important – changes,” said Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.
“I have said before that I am the ERC’s greatest fan, and the report confirms that judgement. I will consider it carefully and the Commission will come forward as soon as possible with measures taking account of the task force’s work, so that we can get the ERC on the best possible footing for the future,” Geoghegan-Quinn said.
The report concludes that the creation of a quasi-full time Brussels-based president of the ERC and the definition of a stronger executive role for the agency director would dispel existing uncertainties about roles and responsibilities, and be financially more efficient.
The task force also proposes that the day-to-day supervision of the ERC should be exercised directly via the Steering Committee which formally supervises the ERC Executive Agency on behalf of the European Commission. The Committee would be chaired by the Commission’s Research and Innovation Director-general and include two members from the ERC’s Scientific Council. The ERC Executive Agency Director would be directly accountable to the Steering Committee.
The task force also suggests the creation of an independent, private ERC Foundation named “Friends of the ERC” to manage private philanthropic donations to the Council.
Implementing the recommendations in the report could be done partly by the European Commission. But some measures would require changes to the wider EU law governing the ERC, which was originally set up under the legislation implementing the EU's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and in line with the 2003 Council Regulation on Executive Agencies.
Some changes would therefore require the agreement of the European Parliament and the Council and could, for example, be brought forward as part of the Commission’s proposal for the Horizon 2020 programme.
ERC Taskforce Final Report, 12 July 2011
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