News archive - Robert-Jan Smits Appointed EC Director General for Research
As the Commission’s leading science bureaucrat, 52-year old Dutchman Smits is responsible for drawing up research funding programmes for approval by the European Council and the European Parliament, and for overseeing the smooth running all aspects of these programmes. Smits replaces José Manuel Silva Rodríguez as of July 1, 2010.
Smits was instrumental in the early moves to get small and medium-sized enterprises into the Framework Programmes. He was also involved in running a heavily oversubscribed call aimed at attracting scientists from central and eastern Europe before these countries joined the EU.
His key accomplishments have included helping to set up the European Research Council, developing the research infrastructure element of Framework Programme 7 (FP7) and the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) road map, and getting the Joint Programming Initiatives off the ground.
Source and further information: ScienceIResearch Bulletin
- European Union (EU 27)
Entry created by Katarina Rohsmann on July 2, 2010
Modified on July 2, 2010
