ELI ERIC General Assembly held its second meeting in Dolní Břežany

Members of the ELI ERIC (Extreme Light Infrastructure European Research Infrastructure Consortium) General Assembly (GA) gathered for the second time, following the establishment of the governing body in June 2021. The meeting took place at ELI Beamlines in Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic, on 13th and 14th October 2021, and concluded with key decisions made on the ELI ERIC policies, in addition to appointments made of Chairs for both advisory committees, the International Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (ISTAC), and the Administration and Finance Committee (AFC).

Second ELI ERIC General Assembly Meeting

ELI ERIC Advisory Committees

The second meeting of the ELI ERIC GA made important progress with decisions and approvals of the ELI ERIC policies. Additionally, the Chair and Vice Chairs of the two advisory committees reporting to the ELI ERIC GA were appointed. Prof John Collier of the Central Laser Facility in the United Kingdom and Dr Marta Fajardo of the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal were appointed Chair and Vice Chair, respectively, of the ELI ERIC ISTAC, while Dr Jan Buriánek of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic was appointed Vice Chair of the ELI ERIC AFC. The ELI ERIC advisory bodies offer independent advice on key scientific, technical and financial aspects related to joint operations of the ELI facilities in the Czech Republic and Hungary, in addition to recommendations for long-term strategy development and policies.

“Establishing the advisory bodies of ELI ERIC is a critical step for the organisation,” says Caterina Petrillo, Chair of the ELI ERIC GA. “It is very reassuring to have leading experts from both the scientific and the management field, which will guide the daily operations of the organisation. I am personally very pleased to be working with key figures from the laser science and research infrastructure community.”

Delegates to the ELI ERIC General Assembly

ELI ERIC Statutory Policies

As the next step towards joint operations of the ELI ERIC facilities, statutory policies were presented to the ELI ERIC GA members and approved. The New Members Policy outlines the principles for the outreach activities to potential new Members, Observers and Strategic Partners, which is essential for ELI ERIC to maximise its scientific capacity, international significance and long-term sustainability. In compliance with the European Data Protection legal framework, the Data Protection and Privacy Policy regulate the processing and handling of personal data. The Access and Data Policies have been sent to the advisory bodies for further deliberations.

“These policies create a crucial link between the governance and the management of both facilities,” says Allen Weeks, Director General of ELI ERIC. “We are looking forward to the next steps of integrating the ELI facilities and hopefully we can gather everyone around the same table in person again in the near future.”

Finally, the Operating Agreements are central to allow ELI ERIC and the Host Institutions to jointly perform the ELI ERIC statutory tasks and activities. They will pave the way towards handing over of operational responsibilities to ELI ERIC.

The meeting was a hybrid meeting and representatives from all Member and Observer countries were in attendance. The next meeting will be held in December 2021 as an online meeting.

ELI Beamlines in Dolní Břežany