Press Release: Task force makes recommendations to build on the success of the European Research Council

The task force set up by the European Commission on the future of the European Research Council (ERC) has recommended from 2014 a quasi-full time role for the President of the ERC, who chairs its Scientific Council, which sets the organisation's scientific and research policy.

The President would be based in Brussels. It also recommends an enhanced role for the Director of the ERC's Executive Agency, which administers the ERC's funding for the leading researchers in Europe. In its report the task force proposes a number of other changes designed to reinforce the ERC's flexibility, efficiency and autonomy - without compromising its accountability - and to make it easier for researchers to apply for and manage ERC grants.

The task force concludes that the ERC should remain an executive agency as the best way for it to deliver its expected major contribution to the forthcoming Horizon 2020 programme.