ECO-SE Section Leader Meeting 1

Name: ECO-SE Section Leader Meeting 1
Start: 2026-09-22T09:30:00+02:00
End: 2026-09-22T10:30:00+02:00
Location: CERN

Tuesday 22 Sept 2026, 09:30 → 10:30 Europe/Zurich

40/R-D10 (CERN)

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Minutes

French Translation Resources and AI Tools

John Pym presenting on French translation section’s workload and AI use
Team of just 4 translators, plus a long list of freelancers; ECO/Bulletin is by far the largest client
DeepL Pro adopted 2-3 years ago: helps a little, but not a panacea
Supertext (bespoke tool trained on CERN corpus): proof of concept underway, not been a great success

Workload shifted to French-speaking editors in Arnaud’s team rather than reduced
Used for all Bulletin/website translations over summer, with a disclaimer noting machine translation checked by humans
Test now risks becoming steady state as September workload is again overwhelming

Obituaries and similar sensitive texts remain human-translated
Corinne (ECO) responded: even checking AI output consumes significant editor time

A freelancer working 50% is now spending time on translation checks, eating into other tasks
What is gained on one side is lost on the other

Comparison made between Supertext and Copilot/ChatGPT: the bespoke tool appears weaker on French formulation; Claude suggested as better for style
Priority shift made earlier this year: CCP and HR-style translations now take precedence over ECO

Pushback: if FCC and HiLumi are top priorities, deprioritising ECO (the biggest client) is hard to justify?
Direct request from FHR Director drove the HR translation prioritisation

Both teams are under-resourced; freelancer model works for peaks but not sustained demand

ECO has contributed additional funds for peaks in the past (Science Gateway opening, 70th anniversary, etc.)
Upcoming FCC and HiLumi communications will create another peak above average

Meeting with Arnaud and Corinne scheduled in coming weeks to agree a way forward
Action: look into prioritisation across all translation needs / support resource justification

Member State Strategy and Web Pages

Industrial return figures: discussion on whether to show cumulative (5-year) or current-year numbers

Cumulative is more impressive but may disadvantage newer member states with steep growth curves
Preference expressed for live numbers with clear filter descriptions and a reference to the official personnel report

Personnel nationality attribution: rules changed retroactively in May (recruitment nationality now used)

Swiss numbers dropped from ~200 to ~100 in one month; some countries saw large jumps (e.g. Spain: 194 to 236)
Personnel chart may be omitted from country pages to avoid confusion

Meeting with HR and IPT early next week to clarify which numbers to display
Decision: country-specific pages not to go live until a sufficient set is ready; existing IR-sector pages to be taken down in the interim
Action: include Salvatore in AMS web page discussions
Action: circulate memo on nationality attribution rules

Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) Update

Rachel presenting; 5 meetings completed so far following the diagnostic report
Key challenges identified: fragmented tools, no consolidated stakeholder view, poor traceability, duplicated engagement, missed commitments
Workshop attended in Manchester with Tractivity, a leading stakeholder relationship management tool

Good tool, well-regarded, but not built for fundraising CRM; would need custom module development
Risk: CERN would effectively be funding their product expansion

From discussion in SRM meetings, the members realise that it would be ideal to have an SRM into which existing tools feed. This option was investigated with Tractivity and its clients, and they confirmed that such a solution exists using APIs and is being used by Tractivity clients.
Diagnostic report shared on the meeting agenda; all participants asked to review and confirm their needs are covered
5th meeting taking place Tues 22 Sept

Modular system (e.g. Salesforce-style) flagged as a better fit: covers stakeholder relations, fundraising, events, volunteering which would allow cost and responsibility to be distributed by module
Need for a single source of truth across all teams working with the same stakeholders

Open Days Update (September 2027)

Dates: 24-26 September 2027; Friday 24th likely a half-day only
Matteo is project leader; Julia Wolthe presenting
Logo selected unanimously; mascot is Lumi (Hi!), to be used across branding and potentially sold in the shop
Sites: LHC points still under discussion; SPS underground access under discussion; Meyrin site may be partially opened if budget is not increased
Target: ~75,000 visitors over 2 days, ~20,000 underground visits, 2,500+ volunteers

Expectation that actual numbers may exceed this given FCC visibility and local Haute-Savoie communications

Priorities from 2019 debrief: visitor access and flow, queue entertainment, volunteer communication, site self-sufficiency (2-3 hours of activities per site)
Ticketing system planned for underground visits
Matteo to contact department heads and technical coordinators early next week to call for activities
Open Days to be mentioned by Mark at the town hall on 8th October; external communication only after meeting with local authorities
Placeholder website for external communications targeted for end of October
Dissatisfaction noted that translation was not anticipated upstream: a French version of the website will be needed and budget for this has not yet been confirmed
Friday session likely to include a VIP/donor element

FCC Public Debate Update

Yann presenting; 4-month exercise now in its final month, 15 days of public debate remaining
~16 events held in Switzerland, ~37 in France; ~1,500 people reached across events; 154 CERN contributors involved
3 significant events still to come in the next 15 days
Formal public debate closes 2nd October in both France and Switzerland
After closure: 2-month period for the two states to produce their consultation reports
CERN then has 3 months to state its commitments and decide whether to continue the project
Transition to “continuous participation” phase after formal debate ends, running to mid-2028 (pre-decision cycle)
A second participation strategy planned post-2028 through to the administrative authorisation/construction phase

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