Prof Luke O’Neill appointed to ERC Scientific Council

Council is composed of 22 distinguished researchers representing the European scientific community

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Pictured: Prof Luke O'Neill, TCD

Prof Luke O’Neill has been appointed to the European Research Council (ERC) Scientific Council.

Composed of 22 distinguished researchers representing the European scientific community, the Council is the independent governing body of the ERC. Its main role is setting the ERC strategy and selecting the peer review evaluators.

Prof O’Neill was selected as one of five new members for this distinguished role by an independent Identification Committee composed of six distinguished scientists appointed by the European Commission and chaired by Prof. Carl-Henrik Heldin. 

O’Neill, who is a professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin’s Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI), said: “I am delighted and honoured to be the Irish representative on the governing body of the European Research Council, the EU’s leading funder of research. I look forward to serving the council in the coming years, helping to guide policy and ensure future funding.”

“The ERC Scientific Council is composed of outstanding European scientists and scholars who oversee Europe’s premier frontier research funding organisation,” said Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.

“To name just one recent example of its success – three of this year’s Nobel Prize laureates have received substantial funding for their research from the European Research Council. Today, I am delighted to give a warm welcome to the five new members who bring to the ERC Scientific Council exceptional scientific expertise, which will complement that of the sitting members. I also want to thank the eminent members whose second term of office expired or will expire at the end of this year for their important contribution to the ERC Scientific Council’s work.”

Prof Maria Leptin, president of the ERC, added: “We very much look forward to working with the new members who come from diverse backgrounds in science and scholarship. This breadth is essential as the ERC’s independent governing body represents the entire scientific community in Europe. With these appointments, the quality and continuity of the Scientific Council is upheld, thanks to the work of the identification committee that was tasked with finding these new members.”

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