European Spallation Neutron Source

ESS Preparatory Phase - Estructure

 The Board is comprised of one delegate per Partner plus the Coordinator of the ESS-PP project (the present ENSA chairman Peter Allenspach) and is chaired by Peter Tindemans. It is the final decision-making body. A Partner, or Party, is an institution which commits resources to the preparatory phase and signs the proposal. The Coordinator is the intermediary between the Partners and the European Commission. ENSA, which represents the neutron user community, is an Observer. The Board names the Coordinator, the Work Package Coordinators and appoints the Advisory Committee.

The Coordination Team is chaired by the Coordinator and consists of the three Work Package Coordinators in personal capacity. The Coordination Team is the executive of the preparatory phase and reports to the Board.

The General Assembly includes all stakeholders (partners, observers and advisors) and is a discussion forum about the work packages, the ongoing work and the outcome.

The Advisory Committee is a team of experts, each with strong experience in a different domain (science, facilities, finances, science policy, environment). Its members, proposed and appointed by the Board, will be carefully chosen in order to assure independent, high quality and professional work and to react and intervene in case of problems or shortcomings. The role of the Advisory Committee is to supervise the realization of the different tasks described in the work packages and the fulfilment of the milestones. A large part of its work will be to judge the submitted deliverables (basically written reports). For that reason, their members will perform their duties quite independently. Besides bilateral contact with the partners, they will report to the Coordination Team every 6 months and Board yearly.