TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTH SESSION OF THE COUNCIL

24-25 March 2022

CLOSED COUNCIL

At it's 207^th Closed Session, the Council adopted the following Resolutions:

Council Resolution concerning the CERN response to the aggression against Ukraine - Additional measures concerning the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus
English	French

Council Resolution concerning the relationship between CERN and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR)
English	French

RESTRICTED COUNCIL – 24 March 2022

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

The President gave an oral report on the following matters:

Decisions taken at the Closed Council in December 2021
His activities since December 2021
The Extraordinary Closed Session on 8 March dedicated to CERN’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

DIRECTOR GENERAL’S REPORT

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

FCC Feasibility Study Steering Committee
CERN and COVID-19
Protocol visits since January 2022
Signing of the agreement granting Brazil the status of Associate Member State
Progress of the Science Gateway project

CERN ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 2021

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Finance and Human Resources, Mr Bello, on the Annual Progress Report 2021, underlining that, although CERN’s activities had continued to be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic throughout the year, an impressive number of scientific, technical, strategic and institutional objectives had nevertheless been met. Notable among these had been the restart of the injectors after the second long shutdown, a first test run of the LHC, the near-completion of the Phase-1 upgrades of all four LHC experiments and great progress on the HL-LHC project and on the Phase-2 upgrades of ATLAS and CMS; organisation of the FCC Feasibility Study, the definition of its deliverables and milestones, and the establishment of the baseline placement of the accelerator ring; strong participation in the development of the detector and accelerator R&D roadmaps; the approval by the Council of the five-yearly review of the financial and social conditions of the personnel; the integration of Estonia as an Associate Member State in the pre-stage to Membership and of Latvia as an Associate Member State, and good progress towards bringing Brazil in as an Associate Member State; good progress also in the construction of Science Gateway and about 90% of its funding secured; publication of CERN’s second Environment Report covering 2019-2020, the elaboration of the site Masterplan 2040.

CERN PENSION FUND

The Council heard a report by the Chair of the Pension Fund Governing Board, Mr Malmberg, providing information on the Fund’s membership figures for 2021, an overview of the current investment activities, especially in the light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a summary of the annualised investment returns since 2012, a comparison with the Fund’s peers, an update of the financial situation at 28 February 2022, with a year-to-date performance of -2.65%, a one-year performance of +3.56% and a five-year annualised performance of +5.46%, and finally summarising the matters discussed by the PFGB at its meeting on 3 February 2022.

PROCUREMENT STRATEGY FOR THE DUNE/LBNF CRYOSTATS AND REQUEST FOR AUTHORISATION TO DEROGATE FROM THE STANDARD CERN PROCUREMENT RULES FOR A PROJECT EXECUTED OUTSIDE THE CERN MEMBER STATES

The Council took note of document CERN/FC/6554/RA-CERN/3631/RA and of a presentation by the Director for Finance and Human Resources, Mr Bello, who recalled the purpose and technical configuration of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) that was being built at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) in the United States and to which CERN had agreed to supply two 3700-tonne cryostats, as approved by the Council in the framework of the 2021 Medium-Term Plan. Procurement for the construction of the cryostats had been broken down into seven packages, four of which would be opened to competition in the Member and Associate Member States in line with CERN’s Rules. However, three of the seven packages called for components that could only be supplied by firms in non-Member States. For that reason, the Management was requesting permission to derogate from the Procurement Rules for those three packages, as described in the document.

On the recommendation of the Finance Committee, the Council unanimously decided to approve the derogations from the standard Procurement Rules, as proposed.

ACCELERATORS, EXPERIMENTS AND COMPUTING

The Council heard various presentations by the Director for Accelerators and Computing, Dr Lamont, and by the Director for Research and Computing, Professor Mnich, on:

the status of the accelerator complex, the work performed during the recent year-end technical stop, the good progress achieved with the commissioning of the injectors and the LHC and the schedule for the restart of physics operation across the whole complex, with stable beams in the LHC planned for 15 June;
the latest LHC physics highlights, the progress of the Phase-1 upgrades of the experiments and their ongoing preparations for Run 3, and the state of readiness of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid for Run 3;
the good progress being made across the work packages of the HL-LHC project, the important upcoming procurement activities, the revised HL-LHC schedule, and the progress of the Phase-2 detector upgrades of ATLAS and CMS;
recent developments at the NA64, COMPASS and NA61/SHINE experiments, and activities in progress at the CERN Neutrino Platform and in the context of the Quantum Technology Initiative;
and the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine across all CERN’s accelerator experiment and computing activities.

The Council voiced appreciation and congratulations to the Management and all the teams involved for having brought the entire accelerator complex, the experiments and the computing grid successfully through the second long shutdown and the coronavirus pandemic to the present excellent state of readiness for Run 3.

ROADMAPS FOR ACCELERATOR R&D and DETECTOR R&D – implementation plans

The Council heard 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, on the implementation plans under development with respect to the accelerator R&D and detector R&D roadmaps respectively. The Council members gave feedback on the plans, thanked both bodies for the considerable work done and called for the implementation plans to be submitted for the Council’s approval at its June Session.

CERN initiatives with respect to THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND COLLABORATION WITH MEMBER AND ASSOCIATE MEMBER STATES

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for International Relations, Ms Warakaulle, describing CERN’s strategy for supporting the UN’s sustainable development goals, details of the various initiatives under way in collaboration with Member and Associate Member States, the ideas for further projects being explored and the preparations for the 2022-2023 International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.

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CLOSED COUNCIL – 25 March 2022

Further action relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Following extensive discussion and a series of votes, the Council decided to adopt two Resolutions, the first on additional measures concerning the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus in response to the aggression against Ukraine, and the second on the consequences of the aggression against Ukraine for the relations between CERN and JINR.

In the perspective of a decision at its Session in June 2022 on the suspension of the International Cooperation Agreements and the related Protocols and Addenda as well as any other agreements, including mutatis mutandis experiment memoranda of understanding, allowing for the participation of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus and their national institutes in the CERN scientific programme, the Council requested the Management to submit, well in advance of the June Session, additional information and an action plan to inform that decision.

Election OF ONE VICE-PRESIDENT

The Council elected Professor K. Fountas (Greece) as Vice-President of the Council for a first term of office of one year with effect from 1 July 2022.

APPOINTMENT OF THE VICE-CHAIR OF THE Pension Fund governing board

The Council appointed Ms I. Mardirossian as Vice-Chair of the Pension Fund Governing Board from 1 June 2022 until 30 April 2024.