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TWO-HUNDRED-AND-TWENTY-FIRST SESSION OF THE COUNCIL

28-29 March 2025

 

RESTRICTED COUNCIL

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

The President reported that, since taking office on 1 January 2025, he had attended the second meeting of the European Strategy Group in January, and meetings of the Pension Fund Governing Board (PFGB) and the Audit Committee in February. He had also organised two meetings of the President’s Group and had managed to have direct discussions with all but five of the Member State delegations.

 

DIRECTOR-GENERAL’S REPORT

The Director-General reported on the following subjects:

  • Main developments since December 2024
  • Top five objectives for CERN in 2025
  • Upcoming milestones for the review of the Future Circular Collider (FCC) Feasibility Study 
  • Statement of Intent signed between CERN and Canada
  • Meeting with the European Commission President in Brussels on 26 March

 

ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 2024

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/1252/RA-CERN/FC/6883/RA-CERN/3886/RA and of the presentation by the Director for Finance and Human Resources, Mr Bello, on the scientific, technical, financial, institutional and strategic highlights of 2024 and the results achieved with respect to the key performance indicators.

 

CERN PENSION FUND

The Council heard a report by the Chair of the PFGB, Dr Buzatu, covering the discussions and the decisions taken at the Board’s meeting on 20 February; the key member and beneficiary administration activities of the Pension Fund Management Unit; the Fund’s nominal rate of return in 2024 of 5.02%; its real rate of return that was 1.92 percentage points above the best-estimate target and its five-year annualised return of 2.55% as at 31 December 2024; the recent evolution of the Fund’s risk compared to the risk limit; and a comparison of the Fund’s recent and historical performance with its long-term objective and with peer Swiss pension funds.

The Council approved the definition of full funding of the Pension Fund, as proposed by the PFGB.

 

REPORT ON NON-LHC EXPERIMENTS

The Council heard a presentation on the non-LHC experiments by the Director for Research and Computing, Professor Mnich, covering the progress made with the construction of two large cryostats for the DUNE experiment at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) and the delivery of their warm structures to the United States; an overview of the tendering contracts for the cryostat construction and installation, most of which have been adjudicated; the progress of the Quantum Technology Initiative and the Open Quantum Institute; the development of an artificial intelligence partnership with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP); and highlights of the recent activities of the CERN Theory department.

 

LHC AND HL-LHC MATTERS

Status of the accelerator complex and upgrade

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Accelerators and Technology, Dr Lamont, on the status of the accelerator complex and upgrades, covering the work carried out during the 2024–2025 year-end technical stop; the status of the ongoing recommissioning with beams; the 2025 running schedules for the LHC and the injectors; the progress of preparations for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC); the programme of work for Long Shutdown 3 (LS3); and the topics discussed at the Chamonix accelerator performance workshop in January 2025.

Status of the LHC experiments and computing

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Research and Computing, Professor Mnich, on the status of the LHC experiments and computing, covering the work carried out during the 2024–2025 year-end technical stop; highlights of the latest physics results; the status of the Phase 2 upgrades of ATLAS and CMS, the risks to their schedules and the mitigation measures in place; preliminary recommendations of the Research Board concerning the various scoping options for the upgrades of ALICE and LHCb during Long Shutdown 4 (LS4); the status of computing preparations for the 2025 LHC run and for the HL-LHC, and the resources needs of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid for 2025 and 2026.

 

FCC FEASIBILITY STUDY STATUS REPORT

The Council heard a presentation by the FCC Feasibility Study Leader, Dr Benedikt,  outlining the structure of the final report to be published on 31 March 2025, recalling the phases of the FCC integrated programme and the reference layout and implementation of the tunnel, and discussing the latest progress on key aspects of the Study, including: the environmental initial-state analysis, the civil engineering design and the subsurface investigations; the optimised, preferred injector implementation on the Prévessin site and the injector construction concept; the FCC-ee operation sequence and the new superconducting radiofrequency concept; the updated FCC-ee construction and installation schedule; and the new FCC-hh baseline and the significant reduction in the FCC-hh power consumption.

 

REPORT ON THE STATUS OF THE EUROPEAN STRATEGY FOR PARTICLE PHYSICS (ESPP)

The Council heard a presentation by Professor Sphicas, on behalf of the Strategy Secretariat, recalling the composition, functions and recent activities of the European Strategy Group (ESG) and the Physics Preparatory Group (PPG), notably the establishment of thematic working groups by both bodies, describing the processes in place to gather and process the input of the high-energy physics community, and outlining the timetable for presentations and discussions at the Open Symposium in Venice from 23 to 27 June 2025.

 

USE OF MEDICIS ISOTOPES FOR CLINICAL TREATMENT

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Accelerators and Technology,
Dr Lamont, summarising the proposal to permit the use of novel radionuclides processed or produced at the MEDICIS facility for off-site clinical treatment and underlining, in particular, CERN’s commitment to maintaining the highest standards of safety and ethical practices and to respecting the rigorous protocols and international regulations in force, and approved the proposed use of CERN-produced isotopes for clinical treatment, as set out in document CERN/3892/RA.

 

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       closed COUNCIL

 

THE FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION OF UKRAINE TO CERN FOR 2025

The Council took note of document CERN/FC/6887/RA-CERN/3896/C and, on the recommendation of the Finance Committee, adopted the Resolution set out in the annex to the document, thereby waiving the financial contribution of Ukraine to CERN for 2025 in its entirety, it being understood that the Member States would cover the resulting shortfall by increasing their 2025 contributions in proportion to their share of the CERN Budget.

 

ENLARGEMENT PROCESS

Council Resolution on the admission of Chile as an Associate Member of CERN

The Council adopted Resolution CERN/3897, admitting the Republic of Chile to the status of Associate Member State of the Organization subject to:

i)   the signature and entry into force of the Agreement annexed to the Resolution;

ii)  Chile’s accession without reservations to the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Organization for Nuclear Research; and,

iii) the entry into force of the said Protocol in respect of Chile.

 

Council Resolution on the admission of Cyprus as an Associate Member of CERN

The Council adopted Resolution CERN/3898, admitting the Republic of Cyprus to the status of Associate Member State of the Organization subject to:

i)    the signature and entry into force of the Agreement annexed to the Resolution;

ii)   Cyprus’s accession without reservations to the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Organization for Nuclear Research; and,

iii)  the entry into force of the said Protocol in respect of Cyprus.

 

Council Resolution on the admission of Ireland as an Associate Member of CERN

The Council adopted Resolution CERN/3899, admitting Ireland to the status of Associate Member State of the Organization subject to:

i)   the signature and entry into force of the Agreement annexed to the Resolution;

ii)  Ireland’s accession without reservations to the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Organization for Nuclear Research; and,

iii)  the entry into force of the said Protocol in respect of Ireland.

         

PROPOSED MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE OF CERN FOR THE YEARS 2026 TO 2030 BY THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL DESIGNATE

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/1253/RA-CERN/3903/C and of the presentation by the Director-General Designate, Professor Thomson, and endorsed his proposed management structure for the years 2026 to 2030.

 

ELECTIONS  AND  APPOINTMENTS

Audit Committee: Extension of the term of office of one expert member and appointment of the Vice-Chair

The Council extended the term of office of Mr P. Wynn Owen as expert member of the Audit Committee by an additional two-year period, from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027, and appointed Mr Wynn Owen as Vice-Chair of the Audit Committee, from 1 April 2025 until the end of his term of office as expert member.

 

Audit Committee: Appointment of two expert members to the Audit Committee

The Council appointed:

  - Ms M. Coudurier as expert member of the Audit Committee for a term of office of three years, from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2028, and

- Mr M. Englman as expert member of the Audit Committee for a term of office of three years, from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2029.

         

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