The Council, acting in accordance with a special legislative procedure and after consulting the European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee, shall adopt the specific programmes.

The framework programme shall be implemented through specific programmes developed within each activity. Each specific programme shall define the detailed rules for implementing it, fix its duration and provide for the means deemed necessary. The sum of the amounts deemed necessary, fixed in the specific programmes, may not exceed the overall maximum amount fixed for the framework programme and each activity.

fix the maximum overall amount and the detailed rules for Union financial participation in the framework programme and the respective shares in each of the activities provided for.

establish the scientific and technological objectives to be achieved by the activities provided for in Article 180 and fix the relevant priorities,

A multiannual framework programme, setting out all the activities of the Union, shall be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, after consulting the Economic and Social Committee. The framework programme shall:

all aspects of administrative implementation and programme execution and in particular, the evaluation procedures, peer review and selection process according to the principles established by the Scientific Council;

The tasks of the Agency are described in the Delegation Act (See Commission Decision C(2013)9428 as amended by Commission Decision C(2014)9437), namely in Article 4 and Annexes I to III thereof. Among these tasks, the Agency has been entrusted with tasks covering:

The Agency has also been entrusted with the implementation of the legacy of the Specific Programme ‘Ideas’, which was managed by its predecessor within the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013).

The Agency was set up in December 2013 by Commission Decision 2013/779/EU, for the management of the specific objective ‘Strengthening frontier research through the activities of the European Research Council’ of Part I ‘Excellent Science’ of the Specific Programme implementing Horizon 2020 (2014-2020). This specific objective is implemented by the European Research Council (ERC), comprising an independent Scientific Council which establishes the ERC’s scientific strategy and monitors its implementation by the Agency that handles the operational management.

The Scientific Council of the ERC is entrusted by virtue of Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 with establishing the overall scientific strategy for the objective of the Specific Programme, deciding on the type of research to be funded in accordance with Section 1.2 of Part I of Annex I thereto. It operates autonomously. These are essential features of the ERC: guaranteeing the effectiveness of its scientific programme, the quality of its operations and peer-review process and its credibility in the scientific community. As set out in Article 7 of Council Decision 2013/743/EU, its tasks cover, in particular, the establishment of the annual work programme for the implementation of the ERC activities, and of the peer review process, as well as the monitoring and quality control of the implementation of the specific objective ‘The European Research Council (ERC)’, without prejudice to the responsibility of the Commission. It is composed of twenty-two members appointed by the Commission.

The Steering Committee is the body that supervises the operations of the Agency and is appointed by the Commission (See Commission Decision C(2014) 430 as amended by Commission Decision C(2014) 9447). It adopts the Agency’s annual work programme (after approval by the Commission), administrative budget and annual reports. It is composed of five members.

The 2014 operating budget provides for an establishment plan of 100 (100) temporary Staff (TS) and a budget for 289 (289) contract staff (CS) and seconded national experts (SNE), i.e. a total of 389 (389) staff. Of these posts, 388 (379) were occupied at year-end 2014:

Products and services in 2014 (2013)