Joint Research Centre

European Union

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The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the European Commission's in-house science service under the responsibility of Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth & Sport. The current JRC Director General is Vladimír Šucha.[1]

The JRC provides independent scientific and technical advice to the European Commission to support a wide range of European Union policies. It has seven scientific institutes—located at six different sites in Belgium (Brussels and Geel), Germany (Karlsruhe), Italy (Ispra), the Netherlands (Petten), and Spain (Seville).

History

The Italian Centre in Ispra originally belonged to the Comitato Nazionale per l'Energie Nucleare (CNEN) and was officially transferred to the Community on March 1, 1961.[2] Since 1973, non-nuclear research evolved rapidly, especially in topics related to safety and the environment. In 1992, the results of a study led to a proposal to convert the JRC Ispra site into an environmentally-optimised model site; the "ECO Centre". At the beginning of the 1980s, re-examination of the mandate and evaluation of the activities of the JRC began. Future activities were to continue to support the Commission's implementations of Community policies. After 16 years of research, the nuclear reactor at JRC Ispra[3] was shut down in 1983.[4]

Institutes and structure

The JRC has seven scientific institutes:

The Directorate-General of the JRC is located in Brussels. The Scientific Policy and Stakeholder Relations Directorate and the Resources Directorate are based in Brussels and Geel, Belgium, and in Ispra, Italy. The Ispra Site Management (ISM) Directorate is responsible for the site management and for the nuclear decommissioning, safety, security, and protection.

The JRC Board of Governors assists and advises the JRC Director General on matters relating to the role and the scientific, technical, and financial management of the JRC.

Staffing

The JRC employs around 3,023 staff from EU countries.[6] The recruitment of permanent scientific and administrative staff for the European Commission is organised by the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) through open competitions. The JRC can also recruit individuals on a temporary basis under certain conditions.

Publications

The JRC publishes scientific publications including: the JRC Annual Report, the JRC Newsletter, Thematic Reports and JRC Brochures and Leaflets.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Organisational chart - Joint Research Centre. Retrieved on 2014-02-07
  2. ↑ History of the Joint Research Centre, Ispra Site. YouTube (2009-12-21). Retrieved on 2013-09-05.
  3. ↑ Essai Orgel (ESSOR), 1969. YouTube (2012-07-30). Retrieved on 2013-09-05.
  4. ↑ http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/downloads/jrc_ispra_50_years_history_en.pdf
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 JRC Ispra Welcome desk Vademecum
  6. ↑ JRC Annual report 2013 (p.24). Retrieved on 2014-04-28

External links

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