The European Commission has announced the formation of a new high-level committee tasked with identifying future members of the European Research Council’s (ERC) Scientific Council
This will help to prepare Horizon Europe 2028–2034. The newly established Identification Committee will oversee the renewal process for the ERC Scientific Council, ensuring that Europe’s leading scientific institution remains guided by internationally respected experts.
A committee of leading scientific minds
The six-member Identification Committee brings together distinguished researchers from across Europe with expertise spanning engineering, astrophysics, genomics, anthropology, medicine, and research policy.
The committee will be chaired by Martin Vetterli, Honorary Professor and President Emeritus at EPFL in Switzerland. He is joined by Paula Eerola of the Research Council of Finland, astrophysicist Heino Falcke from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and Katerina Harvati from Germany’s Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironments.
The group also includes Andres Metspalu from the University of Tartu’s Institute of Genomics in Estonia and Maria Rescigno from the Research Centre for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) in Austria.
Why the ERC scientific council matters
The ERC Scientific Council plays an important role in shaping Europe’s research agenda. As the independent governing body of the ERC, it is responsible for defining scientific funding strategies, establishing evaluation methods, and maintaining the organisation’s focus on excellence-driven research.
The council currently consists of 22 leading scientists and scholars from across Europe. Its members represent the wider scientific community and help guide decisions on funding priorities and research directions.
The ERC itself was established by the European Commission in 2007 and has become one of the world’s most prestigious research funding organisations. It supports frontier research through competitive grants awarded to both early-career and established researchers working in Europe.
A defining feature of ERC funding is that projects are selected solely on the basis of scientific excellence, regardless of nationality or institutional background. This approach has helped Europe attract top researchers and support groundbreaking discoveries across disciplines.
Preparing for the next phase of European research
The creation of the Identification Committee comes at a significant moment for European science policy. As discussions begin around Horizon Europe 2028–2034, the European Union is looking to strengthen its global competitiveness in research, technology, and innovation.
By selecting future members of the Scientific Council, the committee will help influence how European research funding is directed in the years ahead. The appointment process is designed to remain independent and transparent, with input from the scientific community incorporated into the selection procedure.
Since 2021, the Scientific Council has been led by ERC President Professor Maria Leptin, who chairs and represents the council in its work supporting scientific excellence across Europe.
The latest appointments underline the European Commission’s continued emphasis on independent science leadership and long-term investment in high-quality research as Europe prepares for the next generation of scientific challenges and opportunities.
