Executive Support Group

Executive Support Group

To meet the demands of continuity and transparency in its procedures, the Governing Board has appointed an Executive Support Group (ESG), consisting of experienced senior level officials from participating research councils. Membership is ad personam and not automatically linked to the members of the Governing Board. The ESG is co-chaired by an elected member and by the Executive Secretary, who is a full member of the ESG ex officio. 

The Executive Secretary is appointed by the Governing Board for a term of five years and should not serve two consecutive terms. Following a call for proposals, the Executive Secretary is provided by one of the participating organisations free of charge for the GRC. The first Executive Secretary, Graham Harrison, was provided by NSF (USA) for five years. For an intermediate 1.5 years, Rainer Gruhlich (DFG, Germany) served as Executive Secretary and from 2017 to 2022, Michael Bright from UKRI (UK). Euclides de Mesquita Neto from FAPESP (Brazil) took over in 2022.

The ESG, including the Executive Secretary, supports the Governing Board, the hosts of the Annual as well as the Regional Meetings and all GRC participants in all organisational matters concerning the GRC. In addition, it drafts concepts, statements and procedural papers as requested by the Governing Board.

Current ESG members are: