186

HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SIXTH SESSION OF THE COUNCIL

28-29 September 2017

 

RESTRICTED SESSION ON 28 SEPTEMBER 2017

 

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

The President gave an oral report on the following matters:

  • Presentation of the Strategy update process to the APS Division of Particles and Fields
  • Summer physics conferences
  • Revision of the Council’s Rules of Procedure

 

DIRECTOR GENERAL’S REPORT

The Director-General gave an oral report on the following matters:

  • Horizon 2020 funding for the Mini-ATTRACT Phase 1 project

  • Tenth anniversary of the European Research Council

  • LIGO-Virgo gravitational wave Collaboration meeting at CERN

  • Conclusion of an agreement between CERN and the Square Kilometre Array project

  • Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the “Evian” meeting

  • Recent developments in the United States

  • Protocol visits to date in 2017

 

LHC MATTERS

The Council heard a report on the LHC machine and injectors by the Director for Accelerators and Technology, Dr F. Bordry, and congratulated everyone working in the Accelerator and Technology sector on the combination of flexibility, dedication and creativity they had demonstrated over the summer in overcoming a number of technical difficulties and still managing to maintain a peak luminosity of 1.4x1034 cm-2s-1, well above the nominal design level.

The Council also heard a presentation by the Director for Research and Scientific Computing, Professor E. Elsen, of the latest scientific results, the status of the LHC experiments and their Phase 1 upgrades, the timeline for the approval of the Phase 2 upgrades and progress towards the Technical Design Report for HL-LHC computing.

 

REPORT ON US PARTICLE PHYSICS FROM THE DOE PERSPECTIVE

The Council heard a presentation by the Associate Director of the Office of High Energy Physics of the US Department of Energy (DoE), Dr J. Siegrist, on the US high-energy physics programme and the status of the CERN-DoE partnership.

 

PENSION FUND

The Council heard a report by the Chair of the Pension Fund Governing Board (PFGB), Dr T. Roth, on the latest meetings of the Board and its subordinate committees, the PFIC and the ATC, and took note of the Fund’s year-to-date investment return of 3.48% as at 31.8.17.

 

FUNDRAISING – GRANT OFFERED BY THE UK SCIENCE AND TECHNOLGY FACILITIES COUNCIL

The Council approved CERN’s acceptance of a grant offered by STFC in support of the Non-Member State Summer Students Programme within the framework of the CERN & Society programme, as explained in document CERN/3324/RA.

 

 

 

CLOSED SESSION ON 28 SEPTEMBER 2017

 

ENLARGEMENT PROCESS

The Council heard a report by the Director-General on the status of discussions with Brazil, Croatia, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and the Russian Federation.

 

SUBMISSION BY CERN OF AN APPLICATION FOR OBSERVER STATUS AT SESAME

The Council approved the submission of an application for CERN to become an Observer at the SESAME, the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, as per the proposal set out in document CERN/3323/RA.

 

APPOINTMENTS

The Council:

  • appointed Professor Halina Abramowicz (Israel) to serve as Strategy Secretary for the next update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics and established the Strategy Secretariat comprising Professor Abramowicz as Chair, Professor Keith Ellis (SPC Chair), the incoming ECFA Chair (to be appointed by Plenary ECFA on 16 November) and Professor Leonid Rivkin (Chair of the European Laboratory Directors group);

  • reappointed Dr Klaus Gressenbauer as an expert member of the Audit Committee for a period of two years as of 1 January 2018;

  • invited nominations for the successor of Dr Brian Bowsher as the Council’s representative on the Audit Committee from April 2018 onwards with a view to an election at the December 2017 Closed Session.

 

 

RESTRICTED SESSION ON 29 SEPTEMBER 2017

 

DIRECTOR GENERAL’S REPORT

The Council heard a presentation by the Director-General outlining how the seventeen Strategy statements and the corresponding recommendations in the 2013 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics were being implemented in practice.
 

REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WORK PLAN CONCERNING THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND CERN

The Council heard a presentation by Dr S. Stavrev, from CERN’s EU office, of the main activities in the various areas of cooperation between CERN and the EC, carried out during the period September 2016 to August 2017 in the framework of the 2016-2017 work plan, as set out in document CERN/3327/RA.

 

ILC ACTION PLAN IN EUROPE

The Council heard a report by Dr S. Stapnes, coordinator of the author group for the ILC European Action Plan (EAP).

 

ECFA AND ICFA MATTERS

The Council heard reports by the ECFA Chair, Professor H. Abramowicz, on the recent activities of the European Committee on Future Accelerators (ECFA), as detailed in document CERN/SPC/1094-CERN/3320, and on the meeting of the International Committee on Future Accelerators (ICFA) on 9 August in Guangzhou, China.
 

 

REPORT FROM THE EUROPEAN PARTICLE PHYSICS COMMUNICATION NETWORK (EPPCN)

The Council heard a presentation by the EPPCN co-chair, Ms P. Royole-Degieux, on the recent activities of the EPPCN, as detailed in document CERN/SPC/1096-CERN/3322.
 

 

REPORT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL PARTICLE PHYSICS OUTREACH GROUP (IPPOG)

The Council heard a presentation by Dr H. Beck, the IPPOG coordinator, on the recent activities of IPPOG.

 

REPORT FROM THE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER NETWORK (HEPTECH)

The Council heard a presentation by Dr I. Tracey on the recent activities of HEPTech, as detailed in document CERN/SPC/1095-CERN/3321.

 

REPORT ON THE BEAMLINE FOR SCHOOLS (BL4S) COMPETITION

The Council heard a presentation by Mr M. Joos, the project leader of the Beamline for Schools competition.
 

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