9.12.2015 |
EN |
Official Journal of the European Union |
C 409/247 |
REPORT
on the annual accounts of the European Research Council Executive Agency for the financial year 2014 together with the Agency’s reply
(2015/C 409/28)
INTRODUCTION
1. |
The European Research Council Executive Agency (hereinafter ‘the Agency’, aka ‘ERCEA’), which is located in Brussels, was created by Commission Decision 2008/37/EC (1). The Agency was established for a period beginning on 1 January 2008 and ending on 31 December 2017 with the aim of managing the ‘Ideas’ specific programme under the 7th Framework Programme for Research (2). |
INFORMATION IN SUPPORT OF THE STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE
2. |
The audit approach taken by the Court comprises analytical audit procedures, direct testing of transactions and an assessment of key controls of the Agency’s supervisory and control systems. This is supplemented by evidence provided by the work of other auditors (where relevant) and an analysis of management representations. |
STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE
The management’s responsibility
The auditor’s responsibility
Opinion on the reliability of the accounts
Opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts
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10. |
The comments which follow do not call the Court’s opinions into question. |
COMMENTS ON INTERNAL CONTROLS
11. |
Procedures with regard to tangible and intangible assets need to be further strengthened in order to ensure their proper safeguarding and the preparation of timely, accurate and complete information in this area. The Assets Register needs to be kept up-to-date in respect of the location of its assets, inventory procedures need to be formalised and the Agency’s guidelines on the capitalisation of internally developed intangible assets need to include sufficient detail to ensure it uses a consistent approach. |
This Report was adopted by Chamber IV, headed by Mr Milan Martin CVIKL, Member of the Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg at its meeting of 8 September 2015.
For the Court of Auditors
Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA
President
(2) The Annex summarises the Agency’s competences and activities. It is presented for information purposes.
(3) These include the balance sheet and the statement of financial performance, the cash flow table, the statement of changes in net assets and a summary of the significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes.
(4) These comprise the budgetary outturn account and the annex to the budgetary outturn account.
(5) Articles 38 to 42 of the Financial Regulation of the Agency.
(6) The accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer are derived from the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) issued by the International Federation of Accountants or, where relevant, the International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.
(7) Articles 87 to 92 of the Financial Regulation of the Agency
ANNEX
European Research Council Executive Agency (Brussels)
Competences and activities
Areas of Union competence deriving from the Treaty (Article 182 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union) |
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Competences of the Agency (Commission Implementing Decision 2013/779/EU) (Commission Decision C(2013)9428, as amended by Commission Decision C(2014)9437) |
Objectives The Agency was set up in December 2013 by Commission Decision 2013/779/EU, for the management of the specific objective ‘Strengthening frontier research through the activities of the European Research Council’ of Part I ‘Excellent Science’ of the Specific Programme implementing Horizon 2020 (2014-2020). This specific objective is implemented by the European Research Council (ERC), comprising an independent Scientific Council which establishes the ERC’s scientific strategy and monitors its implementation by the Agency that handles the operational management. The Agency succeeds the Executive Agency established by Decision 2008/37/EC and operates in accordance with the general statute of Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003. The Agency has also been entrusted with the implementation of the legacy of the Specific Programme ‘Ideas’, which was managed by its predecessor within the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013). Tasks The tasks of the Agency are described in the Delegation Act (See Commission Decision C(2013)9428 as amended by Commission Decision C(2014)9437), namely in Article 4 and Annexes I to III thereof. Among these tasks, the Agency has been entrusted with tasks covering:
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Governance (Commission decision C(2014) 430 as amended by Commission decision(2014) 9447) (Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013) (Council Decision 2013/743/EU) (Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003) |
Steering Committee The Steering Committee is the body that supervises the operations of the Agency and is appointed by the Commission (See Commission Decision C(2014) 430 as amended by Commission Decision C(2014) 9447). It adopts the Agency’s annual work programme (after approval by the Commission), administrative budget and annual reports. It is composed of five members. Scientific Council of the ERC The Scientific Council of the ERC is entrusted by virtue of Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 with establishing the overall scientific strategy for the objective of the Specific Programme, deciding on the type of research to be funded in accordance with Section 1.2 of Part I of Annex I thereto. It operates autonomously. These are essential features of the ERC: guaranteeing the effectiveness of its scientific programme, the quality of its operations and peer-review process and its credibility in the scientific community. As set out in Article 7 of Council Decision 2013/743/EU, its tasks cover, in particular, the establishment of the annual work programme for the implementation of the ERC activities, and of the peer review process, as well as the monitoring and quality control of the implementation of the specific objective ‘The European Research Council (ERC)’, without prejudice to the responsibility of the Commission. It is composed of twenty-two members appointed by the Commission. Director of the Agency Appointed by the European Commission for 4 years. External audit European Court of Auditors. Discharge authority European Parliament, following a recommendation from the Council. |
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Resources made available to the Agency in 2014 (2013) |
Budget 36,3 (40,1) million euro (final budget adopted by the executive agency) Staff at 31 December 2014 The 2014 operating budget provides for an establishment plan of 100 (100) temporary Staff (TS) and a budget for 289 (289) contract staff (CS) and seconded national experts (SNE), i.e. a total of 389 (389) staff. Of these posts, 388 (379) were occupied at year-end 2014:
Allocated to:
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Products and services in 2014 (2013) |
Following the recommendations of the panel on the review of the ERC’s structures and mechanisms in 2009, the Scientific Council established two standing committees: the first providing guidance on conflicts of interest, scientific misconduct and ethical issues (CoIME) and the second dealing with the selection of evaluation panellists. The Executive Agency supported the operational activities of the two committees, which met two and three times respectively in 2014. The members of the Scientific Council also meet in working groups (WGs) addressing specific issues. In 2014, various meetings of the ERC working groups on innovation and relations with industry, open access, strengthening international participation, gender balance and key performance indicators were organised by the Executive Agency. The WGs carry out analyses and contribute to the ERC’s scientific strategy through proposals to be adopted by the Scientific Council in plenary in the areas covered by their mandates: to examine the ERC’s relationship with the industrial/business sector and the impact of ERC-funded research on innovation; to develop an ERC position on open access; to ensure that the ERC is at the forefront of best practice with regard to the gender balance in research; to explore suitable mechanisms to increase the participation of researchers in ERC calls from countries outside the EU; to develop a roadmap for monitoring and evaluating the ERC’s accomplishment of its mission, beyond indicators and targets, to support the short-, medium- and long-term policies of the Scientific Council. A new group started its activities in 2014, the WG on widening European participation. Its mission is to encourage Central and Eastern European countries to better nurture their scientific talent and invest more in research. It will raise awareness about the ERC schemes in these countries and better inform the research communities there about what ERC grants can offer to scientists from the region and strengthen the participation of yet undiscovered scientific talent from there. A series of working documents containing analyses and key messages on the specific issues dealt with by the WGs and by the standing committees were prepared by the Executive Agency, in collaboration with members of the groups. The main activities linked to the work of these WGs in 2014 included: Innovation and relations with industry: In July 2014, nine ERC grantees holding Proof of Concept grants were first trained and then invited to present their ideas to investors in three-minute long ‘elevator pitches’ to a network comprising leading innovators in industry and academia as well as some venture capitalists. This is the second event of this type organised by the ERC in collaboration with the media company ScienceBusiness. The first took place in February 2013. Open Access: A session on open access and scientific excellence was organised within the framework of the ERC–DNRF Joint Workshop ‘Fostering academic excellence in a changing world’ which took place in June as a satellite event to ESOF 2014. Later on, in September, a 2-day workshop on research data management and sharing attracted more than 140 participants from across Europe. Other events included several seminars with representatives from specific open access infrastructures, such as the data repositories Dryad and figshare, from the OAPEN foundation that is running a platform for open access books, and from the Reproducibility Initiative. In cooperation with STM, the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers, two further seminars took place, one on the pricing of journals, the other on long-text format publishing in a digital environment. Gender balance: In an attempt to continue tackling the low numbers of applications to ERC calls from female researchers, in June 2014 the ERC Scientific Council adopted the ERC Gender Equality Plan 2014-2020. The document, drafted by the working group on gender balance, is intended to take further the objectives of the 2007-2013 ERC Gender Equality Plan. In addition, the working group on gender balance commissioned an independent study, the ERCAREER project, to look into the differences and similarities in the career paths and patterns of male and female ERC grantees and to provide recommendations. |
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Source: Annex supplied by the Agency. |
THE AGENCY’S REPLY
11. |
The Agency has taken note of the Court’s report and will implement your comments on internal controls (paragraph 11). |