A very busy CERN Council Session took place in June and we would like to inform you about some of the highlights. The Council and its Committees heard reports on the excellent performance of the accelerators and experiments, including a summary of the third Cost and Schedule review of the LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) and High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) held in March.
Delegates also learned about the latest great physics results and many other activities of the Organization. They expressed their warmest congratulations to all involved for these superb achievements. The week ended with a ceremony to launch the start of civil engineering for HL-LHC.
The Council approved the Medium Term Plan for the period 2019-2023 with strong support. The ongoing update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics was a major item on the agenda. The Council chose the venues and dates for the Open Symposium and the Strategy Drafting Session. The Open Symposium will take place in Granada, Spain, from 13-16 May 2019, and the Strategy Drafting Session in Bad Honnef, Germany, from 20-24 January 2020.
The Council approved International Collaboration Agreements with the Philippines, the Russian Federation and Thailand. Enlargement was also discussed, with the Council establishing a working group to review certain aspects of the geographical enlargement policy established in 2010.
We informed the Council and its Committees that a donation of 10 MCHF for the Science Gateway project has been pledged recently by a private foundation. This is excellent news, putting the project firmly on track. Fundraising efforts continue.
The Council extended the appointment of Frédérick Bordry as Director for Accelerators and Technology from 18 July 2019 to 31 December 2020.
Last but not least, it gives us pleasure to report that 95% of the annual contributions to CERN’s Budget have been received and we expressed sincere thanks to our Member and Associate Member States for their strong and continued support. We would also like to thank all of you for all the hard work and dedication that inspires such confidence in CERN and its missions.
(This message was originally sent to CERN personnel on 18 June 2018)