MANAGEMENT BOARD MEETING OF 4TH DECEMBER 2003

Status Report on Earned Value Management (EVM)
J. Ferguson, the EVM Project Leader, stated that, from 1st September to 1st December, i.e. the period covered by the EVM status report to be presented to the Finance Committee at its forthcoming meeting, over 2800 of the 10,700 or so work units had been active and about 420 had been completed, bringing the total number of completed work units to more than 3100. Earned Value had risen by some 132 MCHF, with Cost Variance increasing from a favourable 15 MCHF to 28 MCHF, mainly due to the time lag between the recording of earned value and the execution of payments; Schedule Variance had increased from an unfavourable -117 MCHF to -168 MCHF, essentially due to delays in the delivery of important components. In the coming months, all major contracts would be adjusted to ensure a better matching between probable delivery dates and reality. On the development side, the EVM team was continuing to focus its efforts on the contract maintenance functionality in order to keep Project Progress Tracking (PPT), Contract Follow-Up (CFU) and the accounting system synchronised, as well as on improving data analysis features. As far as the collection and incorporation of data regarding the assignment of CERN manpower to the work units was concerned, an ongoing pilot project involving the AB Division was expected to produce some initial results early in 2004.

Status Report on LS Recruitment
W. Zapf, Leader of the HR Division, reported that the majority of the 94 LS vacancies in the technician and craftsmen categories had now been filled and that 25 of the selected candidates had already taken up their posts on 1st December, with many more to start work in January 2004. The selection boards and offers of employment for the remaining 15 posts for which no offer of employment had yet been made would be completed over the coming weeks. The publication of the 58 vacancies for secretaries and administrative staff was currently underway. The associated selection boards and offers of employment would follow in February and March 2004, so that all LS posts identified in the HR plan should be filled by 1st July 2004.

End of the Industrial Action by SECURITAS Employees
The Director of Administration, J. van der Boon, informed the Management Board that SECURITAS had announced the end of the strike by its employees with effect from that morning. He expressed appreciation to the members of the crisis team from the technical and administrative sectors for their efforts in the matter.

Preparation of the December Committee Meetings
The Management Board examined two of the main items to be presented to the Council bodies at their December meetings, namely the LHC Project Status Report and a report on Future Projects and Associated R&D.
L. Evans, the LHC Project Leader, presented the current status of the LHC Dashboard and Master Schedule, noting that, together with the quarterly EVM reports to the Finance Committee, they constituted the essential tools for tracking financial and technical developments and any problems encountered. Reporting generally good progress and a positive build-up of momentum, he announced that the delivery of the superconducting cable, which had previously been on the critical path, was now proceeding at the required rate, with almost half of the total supply already complete. Production of the main dipoles was also going smoothly, although a close eye would need to be kept on the steel collars, and both the field quality and the quench performance of the magnets were good. The delivery of some corrector magnets had posed problems during the current year but the technical difficulties now appeared to have been resolved and the production was ramping up to the required rate. The main concern was currently the bottleneck in cold testing due to the late delivery of test benches which, while now starting to improve, would not be fully resolved until Spring 2004 when the full complement of benches would be operational.
The installation and commissioning of cryogenic equipment was generally proceeding smoothly, except in the case of the critical cryogenic transfer line (QRL), whose installation had begun five weeks later than scheduled. That delay had been compounded by the slow production build-up of critical components and, while the problems had now been resolved, the accumulated delay had forced a major rescheduling in Sector 7-8 in order to meet the April 2006 injection test milestone. As a result, much more parallel activity would be required in the Sector than originally foreseen.
Turning to the document on Future Projects and Associated R&D, the Director-General remarked that it had been drawn up by the Management in response to a request for information from the Committee of Council at its September meeting, following a discussion on CERN's participation in future international e+e- linear collider projects. It essentially presented the status of current accelerator R&D studies, the associated options and the scope of what could be done during the period covered by the 2003-2010 baseline plan and in the following decade. In addition to evaluating consolidation needs after LHC start-up, it reviewed the potential of LHC upgrading, an upgrade of the proton injector complex, CLIC studies and CERN's involvement in international R&D.
Recapitulating the constraints of the 2003-2010 baseline plan approved by the Council in December 2002, he observed that it left very limited resources for anything other than LHC construction, operation and debt repayment. On that basis, the construction of the CLIC Test Facility 3, currently the largest R&D undertaking at CERN, could not be completed before the end of the decade, and investments in other promising directions, such as the Superconducting Proton Linac (SPL), were very modest. Maintenance and consolidation of CERN's infrastructure and accelerator complex were also critically low, even if the special allocation approved by the Council in June 2003 covered the most urgent needs in 2004 and 2005. During the next decade, with the LHC construction project fully paid for by 2011, a number of projects could be considered in addition to mandatory consolidation, including an LHC luminosity upgrade, a CLIC Technical Design Report, SPL studies, R&D for an LHC energy doubler and a Super SPS. However, a limited injection of new resources during the present decade would allow the completion of the feasibility studies for CLIC in time to make a significant contribution to the discussions on an international linear collider. Such additional resources could also be directed towards accelerating the other projects with a view to maintaining the Laboratory's vitality and keeping Europe in a competitive position.
Intended as a basis for further discussion, the Management's document would be submitted to the Scientific Policy Committee and Committee of Council in parallel with an SPC report on R&D for present and future CERN accelerators, a preliminary proposal from the Director-General Designate concerning CERN activities for the period 2004-2010 other than those relating to LHC completion, and an ECFA report on the status of discussions on international e+e- linear collider projects.

Announcement concerning the CERN Openlab
W. von Rüden, Leader of IT Division, announced that Oracle would be joining the CERN openlab for DataGrid applications, the collaborative partnership between CERN researchers and companies to create new grid computing technologies for the future. Oracle would be contributing 1.5 million euros over three years towards equipment and the funding of young research fellows.