Pär Omling, former director general of the Swedish Research Council, has been elected president of the European Science Foundation on 24 November.
The ESF Assembly also appointed Martin Hynes, executive director of the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, as the foundation’s chief executive.
Both men will start their three-year terms on 1 January 2012. Omling will take over from Ian Halliday, and Hynes from Marja Makarow.
“Both Hynes and Omling have long associations with the ESF, with previous roles as chairman of the Finance and Audit Committee and as a member of the Physical and Engineering Sciences Standing Committee, respectively. Both have also been members of the ESF Governing Council,” the foundation said in a statement on the election.
Omling is also one of the two vice-presidents of Science Europe, the association of European research funding organisations launched last month. Science Europe said this double mandate would ensure a link between the two organisations as Science Europe builds up its activities and ESF is likely to be wound down in the coming years.
The Strasbourg-based ESF is an association of 78 scientific organisations in 30 European countries.