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The Joint Research Centre (JRC), located in Brussels, Belgium, is a Directorate-General of the European Commission.[1] Its current Commissioner is Máire Geoghegan-Quinn,[1] and the Director General is Dominique Ristori.[2] The JRC provides independent scientific and technical advice to the European Commission and Member States of the European Union (EU) in support of EU policies.[3] The Directorate General, the Directorate for Programmes and stakeholders relations and the Directorate for Resource management are located in Ispra, Italy, and Brussels, Belgium. The seven scientific institutes of the Joint Research Centre are located at five different sites in Europe: Geel (BE), Ispra (IT), Karlsruhe (DE), Petten (NL) and Seville (ES).[1]
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The EU inherited the JRC from EURATOM. Originally focussed on nuclear research, the mission has been extended to fields like health and environment. Today, the official mission statement reads:
"The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves the common interest of the Member States, while being independent of special interests, whether private or national."[3]
The organisation structure is currently based on the following specialised Institutes.[1]
The EURATOM research institutes have been criticized since the 1970s for overmanagement and scientific unproductivity. For instance, a report to the European Parliament in the mid-1980s "condemned the centres for their top-heavy management. At Ispra, Italy, 700 of the 1600 staff are listed as researchers. But the report claims that most of them are full-time administrators. The actual scientific life of the institute rests on 30-40 people."[4]
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