This year’s ESF Assembly held in Strasbourg, France, on Thursday 24 November included some new developments for ESF. A new President, Pär Omling, was elected to replace Ian Halliday, who had served as ESF’s President for the past six years. Omling is former Director General of the Swedish Research Council and has been deeply involved in national and international research policy for the last 20 years. In 2009, he played a key role in the Lund Declaration, which is viewed as one of the cornerstones in the formation of the next EU Framework Programme, Horizon 2020.
Moreover, Martin Hynes was appointed as the next Chief Executive of ESF. He will take over my position when my term finishes at the end of this year. Martin Hynes comes from The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) where he serves as Executive Director. With a strong international profile, Hynes is experienced in policy formulation and has an excellent record of innovatively executing policy decisions.
Both Hynes and Omling have long associations with the ESF, with previous roles as Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee and as a member of the Physical and Engineering Sciences (PESC) Standing Committee, respectively. Both have been members of the ESF Governing Council.
The Assembly also ratified a 25% reduction in Member Organisations’ contributions to the ESF General Budget for 2012. The reductions are targeted mainly as follows:
- 25% reduction in Standing Committees’ budgets
- Reduction in the number of Exploratory Workshop events by approximately 50%
- Savings in the General Budget support to Conferences
- Increase of internal overheads on running Research Networking Programmes
- Continuation of restructuring the ESF Office, further savings in running expenses, and a reduction in staff
At the Spring 2012 Governing Council Meeting, the ESF office will present a proposal for a multi-annual plan regarding ESF’s future. After it receives initial input from the Spring Governing Council, the plan will be further developed and presented at the Autumn Governing Council Meeting, for ratification by the Assembly in November 2012.
This year’s Assembly was preceded by an ESF Symposium entitled “From scientists to science policy for science“. The Symposium featured key researchers who debated the types of activities and instruments contributing to knowledge-generation, education, international networks and science policy from complementary angles at the European level and beyond. The objective was to extract lessons that may help build a more robust European Research Area in the coming years. You can read more about the programme and the speakers here.
With this Symposium, I wished to acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishments and passion of the staff in supporting the portfolio of ESF’s strategic and implementation activities over the last four years.
As my mandate as ESF Chief Executive comes to an end, I take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for the future.
If you have any questions regarding this update or ESF developments, please do not hesitate to contact Shira Tabachnikoff, Head of ESF Communications, at stabachnikoff[at]esf.org.
With kind regards,
Marja Makarow - Former ESF Chief Executive
ESF provides the scientific, administrative and technical secretariat for COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).