PRESIDENT’S REPORT

The President reported that, since the Council’s December Session, he had attended various meetings of the subsidiary bodies of the Council as well as advisory committees and Council working groups, and had given a talk about CERN at the Forum on International Physics, organised by the American Physical Society. He had had many interactions with representatives of the Member and Associate Member States in preparation for the March Council Session. Finally, he had granted a request for the closing ceremony of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development to be held at CERN after the Council Session on Friday, 15 December 2023.

DIRECTOR GENERAL’S REPORT

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

Strategy process and committees in the United States
A possible Open Quantum Institute at CERN
Update on the Science Gateway
CERN@70 celebrations in 2024
Support for the CERN Ukrainian scientific community
Recent protocol visits
High level meetings with the European Commission leadership in Brussels

TERMS OF REFERENCE OF TREF

The Council heard a presentation by the Chair of the Tripartite Employment Conditions Forum (TREF), Professor Åsman, and a report by the Finance Committee Chair, Dr Salzarulo, and, on the recommendation of TREF and of the Finance Committee, unanimously decided to approve the Terms of Reference of TREF, as set out in the annex to document CERN/FC/6634/RA/Rev.-CERN/3696/RA/Rev.

PENSION FUND

a) Report by the Chair of the Pension Fund Governing Board

The Council heard a report by the Chair of the Pension Fund Governing Board (PFGB), Mr Malmberg, covering matters discussed and decisions taken at the PFGB’s meeting on 16 February. He notably provided an update on the mandates of the PFGB members appointed by the Council, a follow-up of various matters referred to the PFGB by the Council and the Audit Committee, and the latest macroeconomic and investment market developments and their impact on the Fund. With respect to the latter, he noted, in particular, that the Fund had underperformed the target rate of return of 3.7% (nominal) and 2.6% (real) in 2022, with a nominal performance of -6.41% and 2.47% inflation, giving a combined gap in real terms of 11.29 percentage points.

b) Proposed amendments to the Rules of the CERN Pension Fund - Code of Conduct

The Council took note of document CERN/3714 and unanimously decided to approve:

for entry into force on 1 April 2023, the addition to Article I 2.05 of the Pension Fund Rules of two new PFGB functions relating to the approval of (i) the Guidelines for the Implementation of the CERN Code of Conduct at the Pension Fund and (ii) the Rules of Procedure of the PFGB and its subsidiary bodies, and
for entry into force on 1 May 2023, subject to the PFGB’s adoption of the aforementioned Guidelines, the deletion of Article I 2.18 and Annex D of the Pension Fund Rules relating to the Pension Fund Code of Conduct in view of the introduction of CERN-wide policies, including the CERN Code of Conduct (2010), Integrity at CERN (2015) and the Guidelines for the Implementation of the Conflict of Interest Policy (2016).

International Cooperation Agreement with the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain

The Council took note of document CERN/3715/RA and unanimously decided to approve the conclusion of the proposed International Cooperation Agreement with the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain, as set out in the document.

REPORT ON NON-LHC EXPERIMENTS

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Research and Computing, Professor Mnich, covering: a recent result from the NA62 experiment on the search for dark photons; latest developments at the Neutrino Platform, notably in the construction of the cryostats for the DUNE experiment at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility in the US; an update on Phase 1 of the Quantum Technology Initiative (QTI) and the strategy for a possible second phase from 2024 onwards; and progress on the renovation of the CERN Library.

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, covering: the highlights of the work performed during the 2022-2023 year-end technical stop; progress in the testing and integration of the HL-LHC superconducting quadrupoles and other interaction region magnets; and completion of the civil engineering work in January 2023.

The Council heard a second presentation by Professor Mnich on the progress of the Phase 2 detector upgrades, covering: the start of construction of large structures; latest developments in the production of the ATLAS pixel and strip trackers and the CMS outer and inner trackers and high-granularity calorimeter; and information on the areas of concern for the Phase 2 schedule and measures being taken to regain schedule contingency.

LHC MATTERS

The Council received updates from Dr Lamont and Professor Mnich on the status of the LHC and the rest of the accelerator complex and selected physics highlights from the LHC experiments, respectively. Dr Lamont’s presentation included: the work on the LHC and its injectors during the 2022-2023 year-end technical stop; the ongoing repairs of a quadrupole at the AD/ELENA facility; the progress of sector cool-down and beam commissioning work; discussions at the Chamonix performance workshop in January 2023 on the issues of the inner triplet magnet longevity and electron cloud; the updated accelerator schedule for 2023 and the indicative timeline up to 2041; and the status of implementation of the 2022-2026 energy management plan following CERN’s ISO 50001 certification. Professor Mnich’s presentation included the latest physics highlights, notably a higher-precision measurement of the W-boson mass by the ATLAS experiment, arising from an improved re-analysis of the 7 TeV data, and the disappearance of previously observed “B-anomalies” in LHCb, following a better estimate of the hadronic backgrounds to the electron channels; the common approach found by the four main LHC collaborations for listing scientists affiliated with Russian and Belarusian institutes and JINR in the authorship of publications; and the preparations of the experiments and the computing grid for the rest of Run 3.

The Council congratulated the accelerator, experiment and computing teams on the many good results and achievements reported, the measures being taken to mitigate the problems encountered and the successful recommissioning work performed during the first year of Run 3.

REPORT ON COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE EUROEAN COMMISSION AND CERN

The Council heard a presentation by the Head of EU Projects Management and Operational Support, Dr Stavrev, on the 2022 highlights in the various areas of cooperation under the Memorandum of Understanding between CERN and the European Commission.

FCC FEASIBILITY STUDY STATUS REPORT

The Council heard a presentation by the FCC Feasibility Study Leader, Dr Benedikt, on the progress made with respect to the deliverables for the mid-term review of the Study, the ongoing environmental studies and preparations for site investigations, and the status of discussions with the municipalities situated along the potential path of the FCC tunnel, in particular the measures being taken to limit the risk of losing land to other development projects.

JAPANESE FUNDING FOR ILC R&D AND CERN'S ROLE

The Council heard a presentation by Europe’s representative in the Executive Board of the ILC International Development Team (IDT), Professor Stapnes, covering preparations for establishing the European branch of the International Technology Network (ITN), the estimated core material and personnel resources to be invested by Japan in Europe, and details of the various R&D work packages in which European institutes would be involved.

ACCELERATOR R&D ROADMAP

The Council heard a presentation by the Chair of the Large Particle Physics Laboratory Directors Group (LDG), Dr Newbold, on the progress achieved with respect to the implementation of the accelerator R&D roadmap on both the organisational and technical levels, the resources estimates in the various R&D areas, and the findings of the “light-touch” LDG review conducted in November 2022 and the feedback that the LDG plans to give to the accelerator community.

REPORT ON ECFA ACTIVITIES

The Council heard a presentation by the Chair of the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA), Professor Jakobs, covering the major topics addressed by ECFA at its meetings in 2022, the progress made with respect to the implementation of the detector R&D roadmap, the ECFA Study on Physics, Experiments and Detectors at a Future Higgs and electroweak e+e- Factory and the Workshop held in Hamburg in October 2022, the RECFA country visits in 2022 and joint ECFA-NuPECC-APPEC activities.

REPORT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL PARTICLE PHYSICS OUTREACH GROUP

The Council took note of a report by the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG), and congratulated its members on the achievements over the past 25 years.

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closed COUNCIL

CERN RESPONSE TO THE AGGRESSION AGAINST UKRAINE: THE FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION OF UKRAINE TO CERN FOR 2023

The Council took note of document CERN/FC/6657/C-CERN/3723/C and, on the recommendation of the Finance Committee, decided to adopt the draft Resolution set out in the annex, thereby waiving the financial contribution of Ukraine to CERN for 2023 in its entirety, it being understood that the resulting shortfall would be covered by the Member States in proportion to their share of the Budget.

REPORT FROM THE WORKING GROUP ON THE GOVERNANCE OF CERN

The Council decided to approve the mandate, composition and work schedule of a Working Group on the Rights and Obligations of CERN Council office holders.

REPORT FROM THE WORKING GROUP TO REVIEW THE PROCEDURE FOR THE SELECTION AND APPOINTMENT OF THE DIRECTOR GENERAL

The Council decided to approve a revised procedure for selecting and appointing the Director-General of CERN, as set out in the annex to document CERN/2329/C/Rev.5.

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CERN Accelerating science

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT