The European Commission has today appointed Robert-Jan Smits as Deputy Director General of the JRC. He follows Anneli Pauli, who had left the JRC to become Deputy Director General of the Commission’s Research Directorate-General.
Robert-Jan Smits is the Director for the European Research Area: Research Programmes and Capacity at the Commission’s Research Directorate-General, where his current responsibilities include: joint programming, coordination of national research programmes, cooperation with intergovernmental research organisations (EIROforum, EUREKA, COST), research infrastructures, regions of knowledge, research potential and the relations with the European Investment Bank (EIB).