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The establishment of a European Scientific Council (ERC) is a European Commission(EC) development that EMBO and other organizations have strongly supported and worked hard to turn into reality. Within the Framework Programme 7, the (EC) proposes to create the ERC a distinctive funding mechanism for ‘investigator-driven’, frontier research. This new body complements existing EU initiatives and National research programmes, and makes it possible to mobilize resources needed to sustain the generation of new knowledge, on a European-wide competitive basis. This stimulation of true competition will help identify scientific groups of real excellence. The consequences can only be positive.

On 18 July 2005 EU Research Commissioner J. Potocnick announced the names of the twenty-two scientists who will compose the ERC Scientific Council. They were chosen by an independent panel of high-level scientists, the ERC Identification Committee, under the chairmanship of former European Commissioner Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of Oxford and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Universities.
The Scientific Council will be the ERC’s independent governing body whose role will be to determine the scientific strategy and ensure that its operations are conducted according to the requirements of scientific excellence. Its members will act in a personal capacity and be collectively responsible for all aspects of establishingand programme execution, such as implementing the peer review and selection process and ensuring financial and scientific management of the grants.

The announcement of the Scientific Council was welcomed by EMBO, which, through its leading role in the http://www.elsf.org/ and the Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE), has maintained a strong input into the ERC process since its inception.

EMBO Executive Director, Frank Gannon, commented,
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.

Six of the seven life scientists to serve on the Council have close links to EMBO. Carl-Henrik Heldin, Fotis Kafatos, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Leena Peltonen-Palotie, Rolf Zinkernagel are EMBO members. Oscar Marin Parra is an EMBO young investigator.

The 22 founding members of the Scientific Council are:

Dr. Claudio BORDIGNON (IT)
Professor Manuel CASTELLS (ES)
Prof. Dr. Paul J. CRUTZEN (NL)
Prof. Mathias DEWATRIPONT (BE)
Dr. Daniel ESTEVE (FR)
Prof. Pavel EXNER (CZ)
Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim FREUND (DE)
Prof. Wendy HALL (UK)
Prof. Dr. Carl-Henrik HELDIN (SE)
Prof. Dr. Fotis C. KAFATOS (GR)
Prof. Dr. Michal KLEIBER (PL)
Prof. Norbert KROO (HU)
Prof. Maria Teresa V.T. LAGO (PT)
Dr. Oscar MARIN PARRA (ES)
Prof Robert MAY (UK)
Prof. Helga NOWOTNY (AT),
Prof. Christiane NÜSSLEIN-VOLHARD (DE)
Dr. Leena PELTONEN-PALOTIE (FI)
Prof. Alain PEYRAUBE (FR)
Dr. Jens R. ROSTRUP-NIELSEN (DK)
Prof. Salvatore SETTIS (IT)
Prof. Dr.med. Rolf M. ZINKERNAGEL (CH)

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