"Remarks made by an ERC grantee at a workshop on High Energy Theory and Gender hosted on 28 September by CERN have been brought to my attention.  I would like to stress that the ERC strongly supports the principle of equal opportunities between women and men, and is committed to improving gender balance and tackling potential gender bias in all its operations.  Although we select our grantees exclusively on the basis of their excellent research, we also expect them to respect the highest standards of scientific and professional conduct.  We will be contacting CERN, which acts as the researcher's Host Institution for his ERC grant, in order to seek further details about the incident that took place last week."  

Jean-Pierre Bourguignon
ERC President

Working Group on Gender Balance

UPDATE on 07-03-2019

After CERN and the University of Pisa’s internal investigations and discussions, they issued a statement on the above case. In an effort to ensure the continuity of his ERC grant, and in particular several young scientists’ employment contracts, CERN and the University of Pisa have worked closely together to find a solution. The ERC has been made aware of the intention to transfer the ERC grant from CERN to the University of Pisa, in order for the scientific research of the grantee and his collaborators to continue there. This will be done in accordance with the relevant provisions on portability of ERC grants.