In support of this role, a strategic planning team is to be established consisting of the Chair of the European Committee for Future Accelerators, the Chair of CERN's Scientific Policy Committee, CERN's Director General, one member nominated by each of CERN's Member State Delegations, and representatives of the major European national laboratories. The team will give a status report to Council in Berlin in spring 2006, with a full report to follow later in the year. The Council will then decide on the strategic plan.
The status of the Laboratory's flagship project, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), was among other business discussed at the meeting. Project Leader Lyn Evans reported that all efforts are being made to ensure that the LHC be ready for commissioning in the summer of 2007. Chief Scientific Officer, Jos Engelen, reported on the status of the experiments and computing. All experiments expect to be in a position to take data in 2007, and the LHC computing grid is progressing according to plan.
CERN's Director General, Robert Aymar, applauded the strong progress on the LHC and underlined his seven-point strategy for the Laboratory, which he first unveiled to Council one year ago . Progress has been made on all seven points. Dr Aymar closed his presentation, however, with a note of caution. While the Laboratory is on course for LHC start-up in 2007, current expenditure profiles indicate that CERN's budget could be entirely committed to paying for the project until into the next decade. This subject has been scheduled for discussion at Council's next meeting in September.