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TWO-HUNDRED-AND-TWENTY-THIRD SESSION OF THE COUNCIL

25-26 September 2025

 

RESTRICTED COUNCIL

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

The President informed the Council that Professor Herwig Schopper, Director-General of CERN from January 1981 to December 1988, had passed away at the age of 101 on 19 August 2025, noting that Professor Schopper had been involved in CERN’s research since the 1960s and played a central role in shaping CERN into the prestigious laboratory that it remains today.

The Council observed a minute’s silence in memory of Professor Schopper.

The PRESIDENT further reported  that, since the Council’s Session in June 2025, he had attended the Open Symposium organised in Venice in the context of the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (ESPP), the September meetings of the Finance Committee, the Scientific Policy Committee, the Audit Committee and the Pension Fund Governing Board (PFGB), and the first meeting of the TREF Working Group on national personnel returns.

 

CERN PENSION FUND

The Council heard a presentation by Dr Buzatu, in his capacity as Chair of the PFGB, on the matters discussed at the PFGB’s meeting on 18 September 2025, in particular its launch of an in-depth review to determine whether any actions could be envisaged to achieve full funding sooner than 2056; the key member and beneficiary administration activities conducted by the Pension Fund Management Unit (PFMU) in the second quarter of 2025; the latest macroeconomic and investment market developments and outlook; and the Fund’s nominal rate of return of +1.56% for the year to date, equating to a real rate of return that was 0.76 percentage points below the best-estimate target, and its five-year annualised nominal performance of +2.71%.

 

NON-LHC EXPERIMENTS

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Research and Computing, Professor Mnich, on non-LHC experiments, covering the latest results from the NA62 and AMBER experiments and from experiments at the Neutron Time-of-Flight (n_ToF) facility; the status of the SHiP experiment; progress with the construction of the two large cryostats for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) in the United States; open science activities at CERN; the status of CERN’s Quantum Technology Initiative (QTI) and its Quantum Hub; and news from the CERN School of Computing in South America.

 

LHC AND HL-LHC MATTERS

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Accelerators and Technology, Dr Lamont, covering the excellent availability and performance of the various links of the accelerator chain in 2025 so far; the integrated luminosity delivered to the LHC experiments and the successful light-ion runs; the status of preparations for installation of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) during the third Long Shutdown (LS3), including the progress of the various work packages; and the upcoming HL-LHC collaboration meeting from 29 September to 2 October.

The Council then heard a presentation by the Director for Research and Computing, Professor Mnich, covering the data taken by the ALICE experiment during the light-ion runs, selected results from the ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, FASER and SND experiments, the status of the Phase 2 upgrades of ATLAS and CMS, the ongoing work on the enhancement of LHCb during LS3 and the R&D studies towards the proposed upgrades of ALICE and LHCb during LS4; and the smooth operation of the computing infrastructure both at CERN and in the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG).

 

CERN’S FOURTH ENVIRONMENT REPORT

The Council heard a presentation by the Head of the Occupational Health & Safety and Environmental Protection (HSE) unit, Mr Delille, outlining the main pillars of CERN’s environment and sustainability strategy; the goals set for 2030 in domains including energy, emissions, water and effluents; highlights of the progress made towards achieving these goals; and CERN’s knowledge and technology innovations for the benefit of the environment.

 

REPORT ON ESPP STATUS

The Council heard a status report by the Strategy Secretary, Professor Jakobs, on the ongoing update of the ESPP, outlining the various proposals for post-LHC colliders at CERN that had been submitted as input for the Strategy update, summarising the main findings on the accelerator challenges and physics potential of the proposals that had emerged from the discussions at the Open Symposium held in Venice from 23 to 27 June and the views expressed by the national high-energy physics communities, and describing the next steps in the Strategy update process, including the Strategy Drafting Session in Ascona in the first week of December.

 

DECISION-MAKING MILESTONES FOR THE FUTURE CIRCULAR COLLIDER AND THE ALTERNATIVE OPTION

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/1259/RA/Rev.- CERN/3912/RA/Rev. and of the presentation by the Director-General describing the proposed roadmap of decision-making milestones leading to the possible approval of the FCC in June 2028, as well as milestones for the pursuit of the studies relating to the prioritised alternative collider, and decided to approve the plans described in the document, with the caveat that they might evolve in the future.

 

FUTURE COLLIDER FUNDING

The Council heard and discussed presentations on the FCC funding model by the Director for Finance and Human Resources, Mr Bello, on recent progress with funding prospects for the FCC by the Director-General, and on preliminary funding models for other future colliders by the Head of the Finance and Administrative Processes department, F. Sonnemann.

 

UPDATE ON THE FUTURE COLLIDER VISION IN THE US

The Council heard a presentation by the Associate Director for the Office of High-Energy Physics in the US Department of Energy, Dr Rameika, covering the follow-up of the recommendations made by the US Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5), the top priority accorded to the US in-kind contributions to the HL-LHC and the Phase 2 upgrades of the ATLAS and CMS experiments, the recent focus of the Higgs factory study organisation on FCC-ee, the decadal report by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine “Elementary Particle Physics - The Higgs and Beyond” recommending that the US should participate in the FCC Higgs factory at CERN, and the budgetary framework in which the vision for the future of high-energy physics in the US was being developed.

 

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       closed COUNCIL

 

CERN MANAGEMENT TEAM FOR THE YEARS 2026-2030

The Council appointed the CERN Management team, for the period 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2030, as proposed by the Director-General Designate:

- in the Accelerators and Technology sector:

  • Said Atieh (CH) as Head of the Engineering department;
  • Rhodri Jones (UK) as Head of the Technology department;
  • Roberto Losito (IT) as Head of the Accelerator Systems department; and
  • Malika Meddahi (FR) as Head of the Beams department,

- in the Finance and Human Resources sector:

  • Giovanni Anelli (IT) as Head of the Industry, Procurement and Knowledge Transfer department;
  • Kasia Pokorska (PL) as Head of the Finance and Administrative Processes department; and
  • Lisette Van Den Boogaard (NL) as Head of the Human Resources department,

- in the Research and Computing sector:

  • Simone Campana (IT) as Head of the Information Technology department;
  • Giovanna Lehmann (IT) as Head of the Experimental Physics department; and
  • Urs Achim Wiedemann (DE) as Head of the Theoretical Physics department,

- in the Site Operations sector:

  • Benoît Delille (BE) as Head of the Health & Safety and Environmental Protection department;
  • Cédric Garino (FR) as Head of the Site and Civil Engineering department; and
  • Alexander Kohls (DE) as Head of the Organisational Support and Improvement department.

 

APPOINTMENTS

Scientific Policy Committee

• Appointment of the next Chair of the Scientific Policy Committee (SPC)

On the recommendation of the SPC, the Council appointed Professor Philip Burrows as Chair of the SPC for a first term of office of one year with effect from 1 January 2026.

 

Finance Committee

• Appointment of the next Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee

On the recommendation of the Finance Committee, the Council appointed Dr Eckart Lilienthal (Germany) as Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee for a first term of office of one year with effect from 1 January 2026.

 

Audit Committee

• Extension of the membership and mandate of the Chair of the Audit Committee

The Council reappointed Professor Jochen Schieck (Austria) as member, and, on the recommendation of the Audit Committee, as Chair, of the Audit Committee for a period of two years, from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2027.

• Extension of the mandate of one expert member of the Audit Committee

The Council extended the term of office of Mr Carlo Mancinelli as expert member of the Audit Committee by an additional two-year period, from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027.

 

Pension Fund

• Appointment of one Council-appointed member of the Pension Fund Governing Board

The Council appointed Dr Doris Wohlfender-Bühler (Switzerland) as member of the Pension Fund Governing Board for a first term of office of three years with effect from 1 January 2026.

 

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