Decisions at the 13th European Strategy Session of Council

THIRTEENTH EUROPEAN STRATEGY SESSION 
OF COUNCIL

16 September 2011

 

RESTRICTED SESSION

 

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

The Council took note of the President’s report on the next meeting of FALC to be held at CERN on 6 October 2011, after the ICFA seminar at CERN.

 

SCIENTIFIC SECRETARY'S REPORT

The Council took note of the report by the Scientific Secretary, Professor Nakada, covering research infrastructures projects funded through the European Framework Programme and relevant for the European Strategy for Particle Physics and relations with ApPEC.

 

STATUS OF THE EUROPEAN STRATEGY

European Strategy Group - List of participants (members and invitees)

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/974 - CERN-Council-S/086, of the presentation by the Scientific Secretary and of the report by the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee, Professor Zwirner.
The Council agreed that a corrected version of the document, incorporating the missing names of Member and Observer State representatives, would be issued in due course, following receipt of official confirmation of their appointment by the Council Secretariat.
The Council further agreed that, taking account of comments made by the Scientific Policy Committee at its meeting on 12-13 September, page 2 of document CERN/SPC/965 - CERN-Council-S/076 setting out the composition of the European Strategy Group and the Preparatory Group, approved by the Council in June 2011, should be revised to include the following sentence: "The President of the Council has the right to attend all European Strategy Group meetings".

 

Timeline for the Strategy Update

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/979/Rev. - CERN-Council-S/090/Rev., of the introductory remarks by the President, of the presentation by the Scientific Secretary, of the report by the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee and of the comments made during the discussion in favour of a shift in the timeline for the preparation and approval of the Strategy Update.
The Council then agreed the following schedule of milestone meetings for the Strategy Update:

  • an open, “Orsay-type” symposium, thoroughly prepared in advance by the Preparatory Group, to collect input from the European particle physics community, in September 2012, thereby allowing the results of the summer conferences to be taken into account,
  • a “Zeuthen-type” meeting of the European Strategy Group in January 2013 to prepare the Draft Strategy Document for submission to the Council, on the understanding that Member State delegations should have enough time for any necessary further consultation with the particle physics community before the document's submission for approval by the Council,
  • a Council meeting in March 2013 to approve the Draft Strategy Document, which would then be forwarded to the European Commission to be formally entered onto the agenda of the May meeting of the European Competitiveness Council,
  • a special European Strategy Session of the CERN Council in Brussels in May or June 2013 to adopt the updated European Strategy for Particle Physics, on a date to coincide with a meeting of the European Competitiveness Council at which European Research Ministers would be invited to take note of the updated Strategy.

The Council, recognising that the revised milestones essentially fulfilled all the requirements raised during the discussion and at the same time allowed momentum to be maintained, agreedto invite the Scientific Secretary to produce a new, revised version of document CERN/SPC/979/Rev. - CERN-Council-S/090/Rev. taking the new timeline into account.

Finally, the Council took note of the President’s call for proposals to host the September 2012 symposium and the January 2013 meeting of the European Strategy Group with a view to a discussion and possible decision on the venues in December 2011.

 

ECFA MATTERS

Report on ECFA Activities

The Council took note of the report on ECFA activities during the period September 2010 to August 2011, as set out in document CERN/SPC/975 - CERN-Council-S/087, and of the presentation by the ECFA Chairman, Professor Nakada.
The Council further took note that Professor Nakada's successor as Chairman of ECFA with effect from 1st January 2012 would be nominated by Restricted ECFA in October and appointed by Plenary ECFA in November.

 

Report on ICFA meetings

The Council took note of the report by Professor Nakada on the items relevant to the European Strategy Session of the Council discussed at ICFA's meetings in Beijing in February and Mumbai in August 2011 (especially the revised ICFA guideline #5 on the sharing of operation costs for global projects).

 

EC-CERN WORK PLAN, STATUS AND ANNUAL MEETING

The Council took note of the work plan for the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding between the European Commission and CERN for the period 2012-2013, as set out in document CERN-Council-S/091/Corr., and of the presentation by Professor Stapnes.

 

STATUS REPORT TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER NETWORK

(Item 11 of the Agenda) (CERN/SPC/976 - CERN-Council-S/088)

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/976 - CERN-Council-S/088, of the presentation by the Technology Transfer Network Coordinator, Dr Le Goff.

 

CONTINUATION OF THE ACTIVITY OF THE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER NETWORK

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/980/Rev. - CERN-Council-S/092/Rev. and of the presentation by Dr Le Goff and, on the recommendation of the Scientific Policy Committee,decided to approve the continuation of the activity of the Technology Transfer Network for three years (2012-2014) and the corresponding work plan set out in the document, subject to possible modifications resulting from the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics.

 

REPORT FROM THE COMMUNICATION NETWORK

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/977 - CERN-Council-S/089, of the presentation by Dr Gillies, Chairman of the European Particle Physics Communication Network, of the report by the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee and of the request that language representatives be nominated for each Member State and EPPCN delegates for those States with vacant seats.

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