205

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTH SESSION OF THE COUNCIL

9-10 December 2021

RESTRICTED COUNCIL

 

DIRECTOR GENERAL’S REPORT

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

  • CERN’s response to COVID-19
  • Schedule for Long Shutdown 3 (LS3) and long-term planning
  • CERN-Russia Committee meeting
  • Celebration of 50 years of hadron colliders
  • Second CERN alumni event
  • Review of ITER

2021 FIVE-YEARLY REVIEW: PROPOSALS BY THE MANAGEMENT

The Council took note of document CERN/FC/6526-CERN/3603, presented by the Director for Finance and Human Resources, Mr Bello, and, on the recommendation of the Finance Committee, unanimously decided to approve the Management's proposals in the context of the five-yearly review of economic and social conditions of the personnel, namely to maintain basic salaries for staff members at their current level (Proposal 1), maintain fellows’ stipends at their current level while the current programme remained in place (Proposal 2) and maintain the subsistence allowances paid by the Organization to associated members of the personnel at their current level (Proposal 3), and to keep the five-yearly review open, ideally until June 2022, in order to conduct a review of the procedures set out in Annex A1 of the Staff Rules (section 5).

CERN FELLOWS, ASSOCIATES AND STUDENTS PROGRAMMES

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/1167-CERN/3604, presented by the Head of the Human Resources department, Dr Purvis, who outlined the evolution of the Fellows, Associates and Students programmes over the period since the last five-yearly review in 2015, recalling in particular the exceptional measures taken by the Management to support associated members of the personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

THE COST-VARIATION INDEX FOR 2022

The Council took note of document CERN/FC/6530-CERN/3605, and unanimously decided to approve:

  • a basic salary and stipend index of 0.30% and a subsistence allowances and family benefits index of 0%, bringing the overall cost-variation index for the personnel budget to 0.26%, including the applicable indexation for home leave of -2.75%;
  • a materials budget cost-variation index of 0.67%;
  • an interest and financial costs index of 0.0%.

The Council further took note that, in line with the “corridor principle” approved in June 2009 (CERN/FC/5366-CERN/2864) and extended in June 2012 (CERN/FC/5644-CERN/3023), the Member States’ contributions for 2022 would be indexed by the overall calculated cost-variation index of 0.48%.

         Final budget of the Organization for the sixty-eighth financial year 2022

The Council took note of the final 2022 budget in 2022 prices, as set out in document CERN/FC/6531-CERN/3606.

         REPORT ON NON-LHC EXPERIMENTS

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Research and Computing, Professor Mnich, on the non-LHC experiments, covering the successful operation of the various facilities in 2021, a selection of the results and plans of the North Area experiments, AD/ELENA, ISOLDE, n_ToF, CLOUD and the Neutrino Platform, and an update on Member and Associate Member State participation in the SCOAP3 initiative.

         HL-LHC MATTERS

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Accelerators and Technology, Dr Lamont, on the status of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project, the conclusions of and planned follow-up to the recent cost and schedule review by the CERN Machine Advisory Committee, the project’s earned-value management (EVM) status, notably a positive cost variance of some 15 MCHF and a negative schedule variance of 3.3 months compared to the active baseline. The Council also took note that the cost to completion of the project had increased by 14.2 MCHF.

The Council heard a second presentation by Professor Mnich on the progress of the Phase II detector upgrades, notably the CMS high-granularity calorimeter and tracker and the ATLAS tracker, muon system and high-granularity timing detector, as well as the status of the computing preparations for Run 3, progress on the computing for the HL-LHC era and the proposal made to the Resources Review Board, following the cost and schedule review of the HL-LHC project, to extend Run 3 by one year and LS3 by half a year.

LHC MATTERS

Finally, the Council received updates from Dr Lamont and Professor Mnich on the status of the accelerator complex and selected physics highlights from the LHC experiments, respectively. Dr Lamont reported on the work performed in 2021 on Linac4, the PS Booster, AD/ELENA, the East Area, North Area and on the LHC proper, in particular the successful beam test in October and the progress of hardware commissioning and training of the magnets to the agreed running energy for Run 3 of 6.8 TeV per beam. Professor Mnich reported on the latest physics highlights, the status of the experiments’ preparations and computer commissioning for Run 3, plans for further upgrades of the ALICE and LHCb experiments currently being scrutinised by the LHC Experiments Committee (LHCC), and the planned creation of a new sub-category of associated members of the personnel, known as “experiment associates”, designed to facilitate the presence at CERN of critical personnel from the institutes collaborating in the experiments

 

Energy and electricity management at CERN

The Council heard a presentation by CERN’s energy coordinator, Mr Claudet, on the Organization’s energy management strategy, including details of energy consumption monitoring and forecasts, the measures in place to promote and improve energy efficiency, the energy efficiency standards applied to new construction projects, in accordance with the objectives of the CERN environmental protection strategy, and the energy recovery projects under development.

Electricity strategy and costs

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Finance and Human Resources, Mr Bello, on the challenges for CERN’s future energy management strategy, notably the financial impact of increasing electricity prices, regulatory obligations and the end of regulated tariffs, the options being explored to avoid the need for budget redeployment to the detriment of the scientific programme.

Overview of protocols concluded since November 2020

The Council took note of the protocols concluded since November, as set out in document CERN/3608/Rev.

International Cooperation Agreement between the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Honduran Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation

The Council unanimously approved the conclusion of an International Cooperation Agreement with the Honduran Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation of the Republic of Honduras.

REPORT ON COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND CERN

The Council heard a presentation by the coordinator of CERN’s EU office, Dr Stavrev, on the activities undertaken jointly by CERN and the European Commission in a wide variety of fields including international cooperation, researcher careers and mobility, gender equality, research infrastructures, innovation in detection and imaging technologies, e-infrastructures, knowledge transfer and intellectual property, and open science.

TIMETABLE FOR COUNCIL SESSIONS AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS IN 2023

The Council took note of document CERN/3619 and unanimously decided to approve the timetable for Council Sessions and committee meetings for 2023, as set out therein.

FCC FEASIBILITY STUDY STATUS REPORT

The Council heard a presentation by the FCC Feasibility Study Leader, Dr Benedikt, on the status of the FCC Feasibility Study, focussing in particular on the progress towards the main medium-term objective of confirming the preferred implementation scenario by the end of 2022, the launch of procurement for planned on-site investigations, inspections and studies and an update on the FCC collaboration membership and the overall organisational structure for the study.

      CERN’s collaboration with national laboratories and beyond (Part 2: Detectors and computing)

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Research and Computing, Professor Mnich, on CERN’s collaboration with other laboratories, institutes, universities and international organisations in the fields of detectors and computing.

         Roadmap for accelerator R&D

ROADMAP FOR DETECTOR R&D

The Council took note of the accelerator R&D and detector R&D roadmaps drawn up in response to recommendations in the Council’s 2020 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, and of the presentations by the Chair of the Large Particle Physics Laboratory Directors Group (LDG), Professor Newbold, and by the Chair of the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA), Professor Jakobs, respectively. The Council further took note of a report by the Chair of the Scientific Policy Committee, Professor Rivkin, on the Committee’s positive response to the roadmaps, and of statements by delegations in support of the content of the documents and expressing appreciation to ECFA, the LDG and all the members of the respective communities who had contributed to the preparation of the roadmaps.

The Council agreed to invite ECFA and the LDG to elaborate, in close collaboration with the SPC, the funding agencies and the relevant research organisations in Europe and beyond, detailed implementation plans setting out milestones, priorities and funding sources, for consideration by the Council at its Session in March 2022.

QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE AT CERN: STRATEGY AND ROADMAP

The Council heard a presentation by the coordinator of CERN’s Quantum Technology Initiative (QTI), Dr Di Meglio, on the timeline, objectives and organisational structure of the QTI, with particular reference to the planned collaboration with the quantum technology communities in the Member States and beyond.

PLANNED SNOWMASS PROCESS IN THE US

The Council heard a presentation by the Chair of the Snowmass Steering Group, Professor Han, outlining the historical background of the Snowmass process, the topics being covered in the exercise currently in progress, scheduled to culminate with a final report to HEPAP in October 2022, and the overarching objectives of the exercise, namely to define the most important questions for US high-energy particle physics and to identify the most promising opportunities for addressing them.

REPORT ON ECFA ACTIVITIES

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/1170-CERN/3612, detailing the ECFA’s activities over the course of 2021, notably the working groups on Higgs, electroweak and top factories, the elaboration of the detector R&D roadmap, the RECFA country visits, collaboration with NuPECC and APPEC and various activities relating to early career researchers, recognition and diversity.

REPORT FROM THE EUROPEAN PARTICLE PHYSICS COMMUNICATION NETWORK (EPPCN)

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/1171-CERN/3613 outlining the communication strategy for the 2020 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics during the period 2021-2025, details of the target audiences, the key messages to be conveyed and the main communication milestones and channels.

REPORT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL PARTICLE PHYSICS OUTREACH GROUP (IPPOG)

The Council heard a presentation by the co-convenor of IPPOG, Dr Goldfarb, on the activities of the IPPOG network, including its education and outreach around the European Strategy for Particle Physics, the workshop planned to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2022 and the strategy for the group’s future evolution.

 

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       Closed COUNCIL

ELECTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS

  1. Scientific Policy Committee:

  - Composition of the SPC: appointment of three new members, reappointment of two members and reappointment of the Chair

On the recommendation of the Scientific Policy Committee, the Council decided:

  • to appoint Professor Mats Lindroos, Professor Fabio Maltoni and Professor Jocelyn Monroe as SPC members for three years as of 1 January 2022;
  • to reappoint Professor Hiroaki Aihara and Professor Johannes Peter Wessels as SPC members for three years as of 1 January 2022;
  • to reappoint Professor Leonid Rivkin as SPC Chair for a third and final period of one year as of 1 January 2022.

  1. Finance Committee:

- Re-election of the Chair

The Council unanimously re-elected Dr Umberto Dosselli as Chair of the Finance Committee for a third and final period of one year as of 1 January 2022.

- Re-election of the Vice-Chair

The Council unanimously re-elected Dr Laurent Salzarulo as Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee for a third and final period of one year as of 1 January 2022.

  1. Council

- Election of one Vice-President

The Council unanimously elected Professor Eric Laenen (Netherlands) as Vice-President of the Council for a first term of office of one year with effect from 1 January 2022.

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