The European Commission has announced today that SnT Director, Prof. Björn Ottersten will join the governing body of the European Research Council (ERC), the Scientific Council. From 1 January 2023, Prof. Ottersten will serve as one of the 22 distinguished researchers representing the European scientific community.

Prof. Ottersten joins four other scientists and scholars as new members of the Scientific Council, who are appointed by the European Commission on the recommendations of an independent identification committee. The Scientific Council’s main role is setting the ERC strategy and overseeing the peer review process.

The ERC was established by the European Union in 2007 and is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age to run projects based across Europe.

Out of its four main grant schemes, Prof. Ottersten has notably been the recipient of two ERC Advanced Grants and two ERC Proof-of-Concept Grants for his research on signal processing in complex systems. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and EURASIP, with his research being recognised by numerous awards, including the IEEE Signal Processing Society Technical Achievement Award.

Speaking about the achievement, Prof. Ottersten shared, “As a former ERC grantee, panel assessment member, and reviewer, I am deeply aware of the key role played by the Council in fostering excellent European research. From now on, I look forward to participating in the ERC governing body to contribute to the advancement of European research.”

The appointment to the ERC Scientific Council represents another significant achievement in Prof. Ottersten’s brilliant career, characterised by important contributions to both industry and academia. He is the author of numerous scientific publications and patents, and Professor of Signal Processing, former Head of the Department for Signals, Sensors, and Systems, as well as Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm. In 2009, Prof. Ottersten was the founding director of our Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust. He has also served as Digital Champion of Luxembourg, adviser to the European Commission and member of the boards of the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research respectively. 

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, shared, “The ERC Scientific Council is composed of outstanding European scientists and scholars who oversee Europe’s premier frontier research funding organisation. To name just one recent example of its success - three of this year’s Nobel Prize laureates have received substantial funding for their research from the European Research Council. Today, I am delighted to give a warm welcome to the five new members who bring to the ERC Scientific Council exceptional scientific expertise, which will complement that of the sitting members. I also want to thank the eminent members whose second term of office expired or will expire at the end of this year for their important contribution to the ERC Scientific Council’s work.”

Read the official ERC press release