TWO-HUNDRED AND SECOND SESSION OF THE COUNCIL
25-26 March 2021
RESTRICTED COUNCIL - 25 March 2021
DIRECTOR GENERAL’S REPORT
The Director-General gave an oral report on the following matters:
Update on the impact of and CERN’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Recent news on the International Linear Collider (ILC)
Addendum to the International Cooperation Agreement with the United State
Protocol visits and signing ceremonies
First-stone ceremony for the Science Gateway on 18 June 2021
CERN’S MAIN OBJECTIVES FOR THE PERIOD 2021-2025
The Council heard a presentation by the Director-General outlining the main objectives for the Organization for the period 2021-2025, namely:
(1) delivering world-class scientific results and knowledge,
(2) increasing the return to the Member and Associate Member States, and
(3) strengthening CERN’s impact on society, with the overarching aim of preserving and expanding the Organization’s multi-faceted role in science, technology, training and education, and supranational collaboration.
DELIVERABLES, TIMELINE and ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE FCC FEASIBILITY STUDY
The Council heard an oral report by the FCC Study Leader, Dr Benedikt, on the deliverables and timeline of the FCC Feasibility Study and on details of the global collaboration and interaction with other projects and studies, and then a presentation by the Director for International Relations, Ms Warakaulle, on the proposed organisational structure for the Feasibility Study.
ACCELERATORS, EXPERIMENTS AND COMPUTING
The Council heard various presentations by the Director for Accelerators and Technology, Dr Lamont, and by the Director for Research and Computing, Professor Mnich, on:
- developments at the Neutrino Platform, the Antiproton Decelerator and other experiments and facilities at the injectors;
- the successful completion of the work on the LHC machine and injectors in the framework of the second long shutdown (LS2), including details of progress at each link in the accelerator chain and the various challenges being addressed;
- the latest LHC physics results and computing developments, including recent results from LHCb on lepton universality, and the discovery of more than 50 new hadrons at the LHC, the progress of the Phase I upgrades, the measures being taken to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on the collaborations’ activities, the plan for the implementation of the recommendations made by the working group on the personnel needs of the experiments, and the creation of a new working group to strengthen the support provided for users at CERN;
- the organisational structure, goals and progress of the LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) project and the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project; and
- progress with the Phase-2 upgrades of the ATLAS and CMS experiments.
The Council thanked and congratulated everyone involved for the impressive progress and achievements despite the challenging circumstances.
Pension Fund
The Council heard a report by the PFGB Chair, Mr Malmberg, on the activities of the Board and its sub-committees since the Council’s December 2020 meeting, and congratulated the Fund on the overall return on investments of 9.21% in 2020, which significantly exceeded the objective.
CLOSED COUNCIL - 26 March 2021
Enlargement Process
Latvia
The Council decided, by consensus, to adopt a Resolution admitting the Republic of Latvia to the status of Associate Member State of the Organization, subject to the signature and entry into force of the Agreement annexed to the Resolution, to Latvia’s accession without reservations to the Protocol on the privileges and immunities of the European Organization for Nuclear Research and to the entry into force of the said Protocol in respect of Latvia.
Brazil
The Council decided, by consensus:
- to invite the Director-General to request the Brazilian authorities to update the application file;
- to establish a fact-finding Task Force to undertake a remote review of the updated file, complementing it with interviews with key interlocutors as required, with a view to preparing a report for consideration by the Council at the June 2021 Session, with the following proposed composition:
• Professor M. Pimenta, Portuguese Delegate to the Council,
• CERN Director for International Relations (convenor),
• CERN Director for Research and Computing,
• CERN Senior Adviser for Relations with Brazil;
- and to authorise the Director-General to initiate discussions with the Brazilian authorities on the Standard Terms, including the financial contribution.
Elections and appointments
a) Senior Staff Appointments
Appointment of the Heads of the Industry, Procurement and Knowledge Transfer and the Information Technology departments for the period 2021-2025
The Council appointed Mr Christopher Hartley (UK) as Head of the Industry, Procurement and Knowledge Transfer department, and Ms Enrica Porcari (IT), as Head of the Information Technology department, for the period from 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2025.
b) Pension Fund
Appointment of the Chief Executive Officer of the CERN Pension Fund
On the proposal of the Pension Fund Governing Board, the Council appointed Mr Doug Heron (UK) as Chief Executive Officer of the Pension Fund for a term of office of three years as of 1 August 2021.
c) TREF
The Council re-elected Ms Sarah Verth (UK) as Vice-Chair of TREF for a second three-year term of office as of 1 July 2021.
d) Audit Committee
Appointment of a Council member of the Audit Committee
The Council appointed Professor Constantinos Foudas (GR) as Council member of the Audit Committee for a period of three years as of 1 April 2021.
e) Appointment of two members of the Council fundraising sub-group
The Council appointed Dr Florin Buzatu (RO) and Professor Mário Pimenta (PT) as members of the Council’s fundraising sub-group.