Two new Standing Committees, approved by the General Assembly, were established at the end of 1994. They covered the activities of the European Science Research Council: the Standing Committee or Life and Environmental Sciences (LESC) and the Standing Committee for Physical and Engineering Sciences (PESC).

The PESC covered physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, astronomy, space sciences.

Each of the two Standing Committees meet at least once a year and formed a Core Group (or executive group) to ensure continuity between plenary meetings of the Committees.