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

19-20 June 2025

 

RESTRICTED COUNCIL

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

The acting President1 reported that, since the Council Session in March 2025, the President had attended meetings of CERN’s statutory governance bodies, the Scientific Policy Committee (SPC), the Finance Committee, the Audit Committee, the Pension Fund Governing Board (PFGB) and the Tripartite Employment Conditions Forum (TREF). He had also attended the Future Circular Collider (FCC) week in Vienna, from 19 to 23 May, a vibrant event at which the teams had presented their results with enthusiasm and dedication, demonstrating the enormous progress made.

1 Due to urgent family reasons, the President was unable to attend the meeting and was thus replaced by the senior Vice-President, Professor K. Desch, pursuant to Rule 3 (d) of the Council’s Rules of Procedure..

 

DIRECTOR-GENERAL’S REPORT

The Director-General reported on the following subjects:

  • Main developments since the March Council
  • United-States-related matters
  • Report “Elementary Particle Physics - The Higgs and Beyond” by the US National Academies of Sciences
  • Signing of the Associate Member State Agreements with Chile and Ireland
  • Award of the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics to the LHC collaborations

 

MEDIUM-TERM PLAN FOR THE PERIOD 2026-2030 AND DRAFT BUDGET OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE SEVENTY-SECOND FINANCIAL YEAR 2026

The Council heard a presentation by the Director-General of the Medium-Term Plan for the period 2026-2030 and the draft Budget for 2026, as set out in document CERN/SPC/1255/Rev.-CERN/FC/6904/Rev.-CERN/3910, outlining the main pillars and priorities of the scientific programme and the main Budget components, and detailing the changes in revenues and expenses, as well as savings and reprofiling, compared to the previous year’s Plan, and the development of the cumulative budget deficit. On the recommendation of the Scientific Policy Committee and the Finance Committee, the Council approved the 2026 draft Budget in 2025 prices and the overall strategy for the reference period, and further took note of the resources plan for the years 2026 to 2030.

 

2026 Scale of Contributions by the Member and Associate Member States

On the recommendation of the Finance Committee, the Council approved the scale of contributions for 2026, as set out in document CERN/FC/6911-CERN/3911, shown as percentages to be applied to the final 2026 Budget in 2026 prices, thereby confirming the correctness of the calculation.

 

CERN PENSION FUND

The Council heard a presentation by Dr Buzatu, in his capacity as Chair of the PFGB, notably underlining the latest macroeconomic and investment market developments and outlook, the Fund’s annual returns since 2012 and its performance as at 31 March 2025, namely a nominal rate of return of 0.75% and a real rate of return of 0.27 percentage points below the best-estimate target.

The Council also heard a presentation by the Fund’s Consulting Actuary of the results of the 2025 periodic actuarial review, which showed that the funding level according to the new best-estimate assumptions had fallen from 77.1% at 1 January 2022 to 73.1% at 1 January 2025, and that the projected funding level at 1 January 2055 would be 113.8%, with full funding expected to be achieved in 2056, based on the definition approved by the Council in March 2025. The Council further took note of a statement by the PFGB Chair to the effect that the PFGB had reviewed the results of the periodic actuarial review and was satisfied that the Fund’s situation was stable and that the Fund had a viable plan to reach full funding but that it nonetheless intended to undertake a further careful and in-depth review in the coming months to determine whether any actions could be envisaged to achieve full funding sooner than 2056 and it would report its conclusions to the Finance Committee and the Council in June 2026.

 

LHC AND HL-LHC MATTERS

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 successful restart of the injectors after the year-end technical stop, the smooth completion of the LHC recommissioning, the excellent availability of the accelerator complex during the year to date, the luminosity production statistics, the status of the ion programme, highlights of the preparations for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) and the programme of work for the third Long Shutdown (LS3).

The Council then heard a presentation by the Director for Research and Computing, Professor Mnich, covering the experiments’ operation in 2025 and a selection of physics highlights; the status of the Phase 2 upgrades of ATLAS and CMS and the schedules and milestones for each project; the latest developments with respect to the proposed upgrades of ALICE and LHCb during Long Shutdown 4 (LS4); the CERN Tier-0 and Worldwide LHC Computing Grid performance for data recording, processing and analysis during 2025; and news on the 2025 CERN Schools of Computing.

 

NON-LHC EXPERIMENTS

The Council heard a second presentation by Professor Mnich, covering ISOLDE’s recent results on lithium diffusion that are relevant to the development of solid-state lithium batteries, the latest results of the NA62 experiment, news from the SHiP experiment at the ECN3 facility, the delivery to the United States of the warm structures of the cryostats for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), the latest testing of the DUNE’s vertical drift final prototype at the Neutrino Platform, initial tentative contacts with the European Commission on the Open Research Europe (ORE) programme, and the award of the 2025 EPS-HEPP prize to CERN theorist, Martin Lüscher.

 

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT WITH GUATEMALA

The Council approved the conclusion of an International Cooperation Agreement with the Republic of Guatemala.

 

REPORT ON THE OPEN QUANTUM INSTITUTE

The Council heard a report by Dr Smith, Coordinator of the Open Quantum Institute (OQI), on the progress achieved mid-way through the OQI pilot phase that began in 2024, describing the benefits to CERN as well as the portfolio of use cases and concrete proposals that have so far been validated, various capacity building initiatives and ongoing dialogue with international partners.

 

BUILDING A CERN AI STRATEGY

The Council heard a presentation by Dr Varela Rodriguez, co-Chair of the CERN AI Steering Committee, describing the strategy, initiatives and governance structure being developed in order to harness and optimise the benefits of artificial intelligence at CERN.

 

REPORT ON ESPP STATUS

The Council took note of a report by Professor Jakobs, the Strategy Secretary, recalling the timeline for the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (ESPP) and summarising the input received from the community, which would form the basis for the presentations and discussions at the Open Symposium in Venice from 23 to 27 June, the work plans of the Physics Preparatory Group and European Strategy Group, the programme of the Open Symposium and the next steps to be taken to prepare the Physics Briefing Book and the Strategy Drafting Session.

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       closed COUNCIL

 

ASSOCIATE MEMBER STATES: POSSIBLE MEASURES IN THE EVENT OF CONTRIBUTION ARREARS

On the recommendation of the Finance Committee, the Council approved a set of decision-making principles and possible measures to be taken in the event of the accumulation of contribution arrears by an Associate Member State.

 

UPDATE ON POTENTIAL GOVERNANCE MODELS AND FUNDING SCENARIOS FOR A POSSIBLE FUTURE CIRCULAR COLLIDER PROJECT AT CERN

The Council heard presentations by the Director for International Relations, Ms Warakaulle, and the Director for Finance and Human Resources, Mr Bello, summarising the work undertaken over the past year to elaborate potential funding scenarios and governance models for a possible FCC project at CERN.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE WORKING GROUP ON THE RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF COUNCIL OFFICE HOLDERS

On the recommendation of the Finance Committee, the Council approved the recommendations made by the Working Group on the Rights and Obligations of Council Office Holders and thanked the Working Group’s Chair, Dr U. Dosselli, and its other members for their work.

 

ELECTIONS  AND  APPOINTMENTS

Finance Committee

• Appointment of the next Chair of the Finance Committee

The Council appointed Professor Cristina Biino (Italy) as Chair of the Finance Committee for a first term of office of one year with effect from 1 January 2026.

• Reappointment of the Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee

The Council reappointed Ms Veronica Buccheri (Italy) as Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee for a second term of office from 1 July until 31 December 2025.

 

EXTENSION OF THE MANDATE OF THE EXTERNAL AUDITORS

  The Council approved the extension of the mandate of the Court of Auditors of Portugal as External Auditors of the Organization for a further period of two years, with effect from 1 January 2026.

 

CERN DIRECTORATE FOR THE YEARS 2026-2030

The Council appointed, for the period 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2030:

  • Oliver Sim BRUNING (DE) as Director for Accelerators and Technology;
  • Jan-Paul BROUWER (NL) as Director for Finance and Human Resources;
  • Gautier HAMEL DE MONCHENAULT (FR) as Director for Research and Computing;
  • Mar CAPEANS (ES) as Director for Site Operations; and,
  • Ursula BASSLER (DE/FR) as Director for Stakeholder Relations

The Council further took note of the selection of Enrica Maria PORCARI (IT) as Chief Information Officer.

 

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OPEN COUNCIL

 

CERN ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 2024

On the recommendation of the Scientific Policy Committee and the Finance Committee, the Council approved the Annual Progress Report of CERN for 2024, as set out in document CERN/SPC/1252/Rev.-CERN/FC/6883/Rev.-CERN/3886/Rev.

The Council commended the Management and the whole CERN community for the Organization’s excellent accomplishments in 2024.

 

2024 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF CERN

On the recommendation of the Finance Committee, the Council approved the Financial Statements of CERN for the 2024 financial year, as set out in document CERN/FC/6899-CERN/3904, and granted discharge to the Director-General.

 

2024 ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF THE CERN PENSION FUND

On the recommendation of the Finance Committee, the Council approved the Financial Statements of the CERN Pension Fund for the 2024 financial year, as set out in document CERN/FC/6901-CERN/3906, and granted discharge to the Chief Executive Officer.

 

REVISED TIMETABLE FOR COUNCIL SESSIONS AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS IN 2026

The Council approved the revised timetable for Council sessions and committee meetings in 2026, as set out in document CERN/3869/Rev.

 

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