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News
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ERC
Scientific Council Members |
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Claudio
Bordignon (IT)
Manuel Castells (ES)
Paul J. Crutzen (NL),
Mathias Dewatripont (BE)
Daniel Esteve (FR)
Pavel Exner (CZ)
Hans-Joachim Freund (DE)
Wendy Hall (UK)
Carl-Henrik Heldin* (SE)
Fotis C. Kafatos * (GR)
Michal Kleiber (PL)
Norbert Kroo (HU)
Maria Teresa V.T. Lago (PT)
Oscar Marin Parra** (ES)
Robert May (UK)
Helga Nowotny (AT)
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard*
(DE)
Leena Peltonen-Palotie* (FI)
Alain Peyraube (FR)
Jens R. Rostrup-Nielsen (DK)
Salvatore Settis (IT)
Rolf M. Zinkernagel* (CH)
*EMBO member
**EMBO young investigator |
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EMBO
Lindsay Johnson
Communications Officer- EMBO
Meyerhofstrasse 1
69117 Heidelberg
Germany
Tel: +49 6221 8891 108
 lindsay.johnson@embo.org
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Science run by scientists
EMBO scientists selected for ERC Scientific Council
Five EMBO members and one EMBO young investigator have been appointed
to the Scientific Council of the European Research Council (ERC).
The European Commission announced a total of 22 leading scientists as
the Council’s founding members on July 19, 2005. The EMBO scientists
make up six of the seven life scientists to serve on the Council.
EMBO members, Carl-Henrik Heldin, Fotis Kafatos,Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard,
Leena Peltonen-Palotie, Rolf Zinkernagel and EMBO young investigator,
Oscar Marin Parra join the Council’s eminent line-up.
Their role, alongside their fellow members from a range of other scientific
and technological fields, will be to oversee the ERC’s scientific
strategy and ensure that operations are run with strict adherence to
scientific excellence. In practice, this means that the Council will
be responsible for determining the scientific policies of the ERC and
ensuring that the selection of research projects for funding is carried
out via competitive peer review.
The 22 founding members of the Scientific Council were selected independently
of the Commission by a panel of high-level scientists chaired by Chris
Patten, current Chancellor of Oxford and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Universities
in the UK. The aim was to establish an autonomous body that can operate
independently of political or other external influences. This will be
integral to the success of the ERC and to its acceptance amongst the
scientific community.
The announcement of the Scientific Council was welcomed by EMBO, which
has maintained a strong input into the ERC process since the early days
of the debate. Most recently, in May 2005, EMBO submitted a list of
47 of its members to the panel selecting the Scientific Council. These
names were put forward after initial consultation with the EMBO Council
and further nominations by the EMBO membership. Three of the five EMBO
members appointed to the Scientific Council appeared on this list.
EMBO Executive Director, Frank Gannon,
commented,
 The selection
of the Scientific Council sends a very important message. The chosen
scientists are of the calibre that we hoped for and will ensure that
the ERC will make decisions based only on the quality of the scientific
proposals. The commission and the Patten group have done science in
Europe a good service. Now we hope that the level of funding will match
the needs of frontier research.
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