Six new members will join the European Research Council’s governing board as it lobbies for a bigger budget and independence
The six new members of the ERC Scientific Council. Photo credits: ERC Executive Agency
Six new members and three promoted vice-presidents are set to join the European Research Council (ERC) scientific council at a key time for the future of the EU’s prestigious frontier research fund.
The new members will replace the outgoing members of a board of 22 scientists responsible for setting the ERC’s scientific strategy, annual work programmes and peer review processes.
This is a key time for the ERC, with fears mounting over future funding for the popular frontier science fund and its independence from EU politics.
One of the board’s key jobs in the coming months will be ensuring the ERC’s autonomy is protected. In June this year, just a few weeks before the European Commission put forward a proposal for the next Horizon Europe, the council sent a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU research Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva asking for more independence through “a permanent, standalone structure.”
Similarly, the board will have to continue advocating for a budget increase. The Commission has proposed doubling the ERC budget to €32 billion for 2028-34, but the proposal will have to be approved by cash-strapped member state governments and the European Parliament.
The new members are:
Michel Campillo, professor emeritus of geophysics at the University of Grenoble in France. A two-time ERC awardee, Campillo has served as a member of France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) ethics committee and won prestigious prizes such as the Humboldt Research Prize, the Beno Gutenberg Medal and a CNRS Silver Medal.
Emmanuelle Charpentier. A Nobel Prize laureate as well as the founder, scientific and managing director of a Max Planck unit for the science of pathogens in Berlin, Charpentier is best known for pioneering research that laid the foundations for the CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering and editing technology.
Kateřina Králová, a historian specialising in contemporary European history, memory studies and post-conflict reconstruction. Králová is a professor of contemporary history at the Institute of Ethnology and Charles University in Czechia.
Susana Narotzky, professor of social anthropology at the University of Barcelona and former ERC grantee. Narotzky holds the Spanish national prize for humanities research and was president of the European Association of Social Anthropology.
Karin Roelofs, professor at Radbound University's Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour and its Behavioural Science Institute. Roelofs has been awarded three ERC grants at all career stages and was a founding member and vice president of the Association for ERC Grantees from 2019 to 2025.
Eleftheria Zeggini, director of Helmholtz Association’s Institute of Translational Genomics in Munich. Zeggini also serves on the council of the European Molecular Biology Organization and is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the UK and the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems.
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The new members of the council are appointed for a term of four years, renewable once. They were selected by an independent committee of six scientists and scholars, appointed by the Commission, in consultation with the scientific community.
The members who have ended their term are:
- Geneviève Almouzni, French biologist
- Mercedes García-Arenal, Spanish religious and cultural historian
- Gerd Gigerenzer, German psychologist
- Eystein Jansen, Norwegian professor in marine geology and paleoceanography
- Jesper Svejstrup, Danish molecular biologist and biochemist
- Milena Žic Fuchs, linguist and Croatia’s former science and technology minister
In addition to the new members, the council will promote three current members to vice presidents, each covering one of the ERC’s scientific domains.
Liselotte Højgaard will oversee the life sciences. A professor at the University of Copenhagen, she is a nuclear medicine physician and clinician scientist.
The economist Torsten Persson will be in charge of the social sciences and humanities. He is a professor at the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University and at the London School of Economics.
Nicola Spaldin, professor of materials theory at ETH Zurich, will be responsible for physical sciences and engineering. Spaldin is also a science educator and holder of the ETH Zurich Golden Owl Award for teaching excellence.
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