munich

The European Commission in Brussels last week approved its restructured science advisory group, the European Science and Technology Assembly (ESTA). The new assembly, whose numbers have been cut from 100 to around 60, with a higher proportion of academic representation than before, will take up its responsibilities next month when the term of the current assembly expires.

ESTA was set up as an advisory group to the commission three years ago, with members primarily from academic institutions and industry. Its reports have included the role of basic research in Europe and the future of nuclear fusion research (see Nature 387, 328; 1997).

But the assembly also had teething problems. Lack of administrative support from the commission led last year to the threatened resignation of its chairman, Jan Borgman, former head of the Dutch National Research Council (see Nature 381, 180; 1996). A permanent secretariat has now been established within the commission.

As the number of representatives was found unwieldy, the assembly has been trimmed by a third, and ESTA's ‘bureau’, the executive group which has 20 members, will be trimmed similarly.

The new assembly will meet for the first time at the beginning of October, when it will elect a chairman who will be ultimately responsible for choosing topics for its future reports. The chairman will also have to consider how to take forward ESTA's most recent report, which sought to identify strengths and weaknesses in Europe's basic research, but was criticized for lack of internal consistency.