The Official Journal of the European Union published on 13 January the Commission's Decision 2011/12/EU of 12 January 2011 amending Decision from 2007 which established the European Research Council. This provision follows the recommendations made during an independent review of its structures and aims at guaranteeing the efficiency and coherence of this institution.

The European Research Council was established in 2007 with the objective to to stimulate scientific excellence by supporting and encouraging the very best, truly creative scientists, scholars and engineers to be adventurous and take risks in their research. In their activities, scientists are encouraged by the ERC to go beyond established frontiers of knowledge and the boundaries of disciplines.

Following the provisions put forward by the Specific Programme “Ideas” from the Seventh Framework Programme, an independent review was carried out of the ERC’s structures and mechanisms, against the criteria of scientific excellence, autonomy, efficiency and transparency and with the full involvement of the Scientific Council. The Review Panel suggested a number of adjustments in order to ensure a more effective European Research Council and a coherent presentation of the ERC’s activities to stakeholders.

Further to this review and with the aim to achieve a more sustainable ERC, the European Commission expressed a series of recommendations in its 2009 Communication “The European Research Council — meeting the challenge of world class excellence”. Decision 2011/12/EU therefore introduces the necessary amendments in order to develop such objectives for the second phase of the ERC’s development, as well as the specific actions to improve the ERC’s operations suggested by the Commission in order to ensure the effective and efficient implementation of the ‘Ideas’ Specific Programme.

This Decision aims to adopt a single clear and transparent vision and seamless liaison between the ERC’s strategy and operational implementation, reflecting the activities of both the European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA) and the Scientific Council, and to develop and implement a coherent and integrated communication strategy. It also takes into account some of the considerations made in the report about ERC activities during 2009 released in September 2010 which reviewed the main activities and modifications made by the institution over that year.

The amendments introduced by this Decision entered into force the day of its adoption, on 12 January 2011.

The European Research Council (ERC)

The European Research Council (ERC) manages the Specific Programme "Ideas”, one of the four components of the Seventh Framework Programme for European Research (FP7). For that purpose, each year, the Council awards major research grants to scientists who are at the beginning of his career ("ERC Starting Grants") or for scientists with experience and recognized in their area ("ERC Advanced Grants).