Keith Jeffery, Director, IT & International Strategy at CCLRC, has been re-elected ERCIM president for a further two-year term of office 2007-2009 during the bi-annual meeting of ERCIM's board of directors in Nice, France, in October 2006. Keith took office as ERCIM president on 1 January 2005.

INRIA and Microsoft have inaugurated a joint fundamental research laboratory in Orsay near Paris on 11 January 2007. For several years, INRIA and Microsoft Research have been working together to push forward research in the software industry field, a key sector in the 'weightless economy' that was the subject of a recent report submitted to the French ministry of economy.

Gilles Kahn was the Chief Executive Officer of INRIA and INRIA's representative on ERCIM's board of directors when he passed away in February 2006. His friends and colleagues met on 12 January 2007 in Paris to commemorate his friendship and his scientific leadership.

ERCIM has signed the 'Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities' on 30 October 2006. The Berlin Declaration states that, "Establishing open access as a worthwhile procedure ideally requires the active commitment of each and every individual producer of scientific knowledge and holder of cultural heritage".