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Template:Short description Template:Other uses Template:Pp-move Template:Pp-semi-indef Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Oxford spelling Template:Infobox organization

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (Template:IPAc-en; Template:IPA; Template:Lang), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Geneva, on the France–Switzerland border. It comprises 24 member states.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Israel, admitted in 2013, is the only full member geographically out of Europe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> CERN is an official United Nations General Assembly observer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The acronym CERN is also used to refer to the laboratory; in 2023, it had 2,666 scientific, technical, and administrative staff members, and hosted about 12,370 users from institutions in more than 80 countries.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2016, CERN generated 49 petabytes of data.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

CERN's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research – consequently, numerous experiments have been constructed at CERN through international collaborations. CERN is the site of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The main site at Meyrin hosts a large computing facility, which is primarily used to store and analyze data from experiments, as well as simulate events. As researchers require remote access to these facilities, the lab has historically been a major wide area network hub. CERN is also the birthplace of the World Wide Web.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

History

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File:Cernfounders.png
The 12 founding member states of CERN in 1954.<ref name="foundation">Template:Cite web</ref>

The convention establishing CERN<ref name=":0" /> was ratified on 29 September 1954 by 12 countries in Western Europe.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The acronym CERN originally represented the French words for Template:Lang ('European Council for Nuclear Research'), which was a provisional council for building the laboratory, established by 12 European governments in 1952. During these early years, the council worked at the University of Copenhagen under the direction of Niels Bohr before moving to its present site near Geneva.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The acronym was retained for the new laboratory after the provisional council was dissolved, even though the name changed to the current Template:Lang ('European Organization for Nuclear Research') in 1954.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to Lew Kowarski, a former director of CERN, when the name was changed, the abbreviation could have become the awkward OERN,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Werner Heisenberg said that this could "still be CERN even if the name is [not]".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

CERN's first president was Sir Benjamin Lockspeiser. Edoardo Amaldi was the general secretary of CERN at its early stages when operations were still provisional, and the first Director-General (1954) was Felix Bloch.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The laboratory was originally devoted to the study of atomic nuclei, but was soon applied to higher-energy physics, concerned mainly with the study of interactions between subatomic particles. Therefore, the laboratory operated by CERN is commonly referred to as the European laboratory for particle physics (Template:Lang), which better describes the research being performed there.Template:Citation needed

Founding members

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At the sixth session of the CERN Council in Paris from 29 June to 1 July 1953, the convention establishing the organization was signed, subject to ratification, by 12 states. The convention was gradually ratified by the 12 founding Member States: Belgium, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Scientific achievements

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Several important achievements in particle physics have been made through experiments at CERN. They include:

In September 2011, CERN attracted media attention when the OPERA Collaboration reported the detection of possibly faster-than-light neutrinos.<ref>Adrian Cho, "Neutrinos Travel Faster Than Light, According to One Experiment", Science NOW, 22 September 2011.</ref> Further tests showed that the results were flawed due to an incorrectly connected GPS synchronization cable.<ref name="OPERAanomaly">Template:Cite web</ref>

The 1984 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer for the developments that resulted in the discoveries of the W and Z bosons.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The 1992 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to CERN staff researcher Georges Charpak "for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber". The 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to François Englert and Peter Higgs for the theoretical description of the Higgs mechanism in the year after the Higgs boson was found by CERN experiments.

Computer science

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CERN pioneered the introduction of TCP/IP for its intranet, beginning in 1984. This played an influential role in the adoption of the TCP/IP in Europe (see History of the Internet and Protocol Wars).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 1989, the World Wide Web was invented at CERN by Tim Berners-Lee. Based on the concept of hypertext, the idea was designed to facilitate information sharing between researchers.<ref name="TBL Web Proposal">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This stemmed from Berners-Lee's earlier work at CERN on a database named ENQUIRE. A colleague, Robert Cailliau, became involved in 1990.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1995, Berners-Lee and Cailliau were jointly honoured by the Association for Computing Machinery for their contributions to the development of the World Wide Web.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A copy of the first webpage, created by Berners-Lee, is still published on the World Wide Web Consortium's website as a historical document.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The first website was activated in 1991. On 30 April 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone. It became the dominant way through which most users interact with the Internet.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

More recently, CERN has become a facility for the development of grid computing, hosting projects including the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) and LHC Computing Grid. It also hosts the CERN Internet Exchange Point (CIXP), one of the two main internet exchange points in Switzerland. Template:As of, CERN employs ten times more engineers and technicians than research physicists.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Particle accelerators

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Current complex

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File:Location Large Hadron Collider.PNG
A map of the Large Hadron Collider together with the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN

CERN operates a network of seven accelerators and two decelerators, and some additional small accelerators. Each machine in the chain increases the energy of particle beams before delivering them to experiments or to the next more powerful accelerator. The decelerators naturally decrease the energy of particle beams before delivering them to experiments or further accelerators/decelerators. Before an experiment is able to use the network of accelerators, it must be approved by the various Scientific Committees of CERN.<ref name=":32">Template:Cite web</ref> Currently (as of 2022) active machines are the LHC accelerator and:

Large Hadron Collider

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Many activities at CERN currently involve operating the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the experiments for it. The LHC represents a large-scale, worldwide scientific cooperation project.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:View inside detector at the CMS cavern LHC CERN.jpg
CMS detector for LHC

The LHC tunnel is located 100 metres underground, in the region between Geneva International Airport and the nearby Jura mountains. The majority of its length is on the French side of the border. It uses the 27 km circumference circular tunnel previously occupied by the Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP), which was shut down in November 2000. CERN's existing PS/SPS accelerator complexes are used to pre-accelerate protons and lead ions which are then injected into the LHC.

Eight experiments (CMS,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> ATLAS,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> LHCb,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> MoEDAL,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> TOTEM,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> LHCf,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> FASER<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and ALICE<ref>Template:Cite arXiv</ref>) are located along the collider; each of them studies particle collisions from a different aspect, and with different technologies. Construction for these experiments required an extraordinary engineering effort. For example, a special crane was rented from Belgium to lower pieces of the CMS detector into its cavern, since each piece weighed nearly 2,000 tons. The first of the approximately 5,000 magnets necessary for construction was lowered down a special shaft at in March 2005.

The LHC has begun to generate vast quantities of data, which CERN streams to laboratories around the world for distributed processing, making use of a specialized grid infrastructure, the LHC Computing Grid. In April 2005, a trial successfully streamed 600 MB/s to seven different sites across the world.

In August 2008, the initial particle beams were injected into the LHC.<ref name="NYT2008/07/29">Template:Cite news</ref> The first beam was circulated through the entire LHC on 10 September 2008,<ref name="CERNPR06.08">Template:Cite web</ref> but the system failed 10 days later because of a faulty magnet connection, and it was stopped for repairs on 19 September 2008.

The LHC resumed operation on 20 November 2009 by successfully circulating two beams, each with an energy of 3.5 teraelectronvolts (TeV). The challenge for the engineers was then to line up the two beams so that they smashed into each other. This is like "firing two needles across the Atlantic and getting them to hit each other" according to Steve Myers, director for accelerators and technology.

On 30 March 2010, the LHC successfully collided two proton beams with 3.5 TeV of energy per proton, resulting in a 7 TeV collision energy. This was enough to start the main research program, including the search for the Higgs boson. When the 7 TeV experimental period ended, the LHC increased to 8 TeV (4 TeV per proton) starting March 2012, and soon began particle collisions at that energy. In July 2012, CERN scientists announced the discovery of a new sub-atomic particle that was later confirmed to be the Higgs boson.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In March 2013, CERN announced that the measurements performed on the newly found particle allowed it to conclude that it was a Higgs boson.<ref name="intersitetunnel">Template:Cite web</ref> In early 2013, the LHC was deactivated for a two-year maintenance period, to strengthen the electrical connections between magnets inside the accelerator and for other upgrades.

On 5 April 2015, after two years of maintenance and consolidation, the LHC restarted for a second run. The first ramp to the record-breaking energy of 6.5 TeV was performed on 10 April 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016, the design collision rate was exceeded for the first time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A second two-year period of shutdown begun at the end of 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Accelerators under construction

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As of October 2019, the construction is on-going to upgrade the LHC's luminosity in a project called High Luminosity LHC (HL–LHC). This project should see the LHC accelerator upgraded by 2026 to an order of magnitude higher luminosity.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

As part of the HL–LHC upgrade project, also other CERN accelerators and their subsystems are receiving upgrades. Among other work, the LINAC 2 linear accelerator injector was decommissioned and replaced by a new injector accelerator, the LINAC4.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Decommissioned accelerators

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Possible future accelerators

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Template:MainCERN, in collaboration with groups worldwide, is investigating two main concepts for future accelerators: A linear electron-positron collider with a new acceleration concept to increase the energy (CLIC) and a larger version of the LHC, a project currently named Future Circular Collider.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Sites

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File:CERN Building 40 (1).jpg
CERN building 40 at the Meyrin site
File:Bldng40cropped.jpg
The interior of office building 40 at the Meyrin site. Building 40 hosts many offices for scientists from the CMS and ATLAS collaborations.

The smaller accelerators are on the main Meyrin site, also known as the West Area, which was originally built in Switzerland alongside the French border, but has been extended to span the border since 1965. The French side is under Swiss jurisdiction and there is no obvious border within the site, apart from a line of marker stones.

The SPS and LEP/LHC tunnels are almost entirely outside the main site, and are mostly buried under French farmland and invisible from the surface. They have surface sites at points around them, either as the location of buildings associated with experiments or other facilities needed to operate the colliders such as cryogenic plants and access shafts. The experiments are located at the same underground level as the tunnels at these sites.

Three of these experimental sites are in France, with ATLAS in Switzerland, and some of the ancillary cryogenic and access sites are in Switzerland. The largest of the experimental sites is the Prévessin site, also known as the North Area, which is the target station for non-collider experiments on the SPS accelerator. Other sites are the ones which were used for the UA1, UA2 and the LEP experiments. The latter are used by LHC experiments.

Outside of the LEP and LHC experiments, most are officially named and numbered after the site where they were located. For example, NA32 was an experiment looking at the production of so-called "charmed" particles and located at the Prévessin (North Area) site. WA22 used the Big European Bubble Chamber (BEBC) at the Meyrin (West Area) site to examine neutrino interactions. The UA1 and UA2 experiments were considered to be in the Underground Area, i.e. situated underground at sites on the SPS accelerator.

Most of the roads on the CERN Meyrin and Prévessin sites are named after famous physicists, such as Wolfgang Pauli, who pushed for CERN's creation. Other notable names are Richard Feynman, Albert Einstein, and Bohr.

Participation and funding

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Member states and budget

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Since its foundation by 12 members in 1954, CERN regularly accepted new members. All new members have remained in the organization continuously since their accession, except Spain and Yugoslavia. Spain first joined CERN in 1961, withdrew in 1969, and rejoined in 1983. Yugoslavia was a founding member of CERN but quit in 1961. Of the 24 members, Israel joined CERN as a full member in January 2014,<ref name=ISR /> becoming the first, and currently only, non-Geographically European full member.<ref>Rahman, Fazlur. (11 November 2013) Israel may become first non-European member of nuclear research group CERN – Diplomacy and Defense Israel News. Haaretz. Retrieved 28 April 2014.</ref>

The budget contributions of member states are computed based on their GDP.<ref name="autogenerated1">Template:Cite web</ref>

Member state Status since Contribution
(million CHF for 2019) 		Contribution
(fraction of total for 2019) 		Contribution per capitaTemplate:Refn
(CHF/person for 2017)
Founding MembersTemplate:Refn
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Template:ITA Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
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Template:CHE Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:GBR Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:YUGTemplate:Refn Template:Dts<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="timeline.web.cern.ch">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Acceded MembersTemplate:Refn
Template:AUT Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:ESPTemplate:Refn Template:Dts<ref name="timeline.web.cern.ch"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:PRT Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:FIN Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:POL Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:HUN Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:CZE Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:SVK Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:BGR Template:Dts Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:ISR Template:Dts<ref name=ISR>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:ROM Template:Dts<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:SRB Template:Dts<ref name=SRB>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts Template:Nts% Template:Nts
Template:EST Template:Dts<ref name="home.cern">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts N/A N/A
Associate Members in the pre-stage to membership
Template:CYP Template:Dts<ref name="cyprus-assoc">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts N/A N/A
Template:SLO Template:Dts<ref name="slovenia-assoc">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="slovenia-assoc-ratify">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts N/A N/A
Associate Members
Template:TUR Template:Dts<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts N/A N/A
Template:PAK Template:Dts<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts N/A N/A
Template:UKR Template:Dts<ref name="ukraine">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts N/A N/A
Template:IND Template:Dts<ref name="india">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts N/A N/A
Template:LIT Template:Dts<ref name="lithuania-assoc-cern"/> Template:Nts N/A N/A
Template:CRO Template:Dts<ref name="international-relations.web.cern.ch">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts N/A N/A
Template:LAT Template:Dts<ref name="latvia-becomes-AMS-cern">Template:Cite news</ref> N/A N/A
Template:BRA Template:Dts<ref name="brazil-becomes-AMS-cern">Template:Cite news</ref> N/A N/A
Template:HsTotal Members, Candidates and Associates Template:Nts<ref name="autogenerated1" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Nts% N/A

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Enlargement

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Associate Members, Candidates:

  • Turkey signed an association agreement on 12 May 2014<ref name="TUR">Template:Cite web</ref> and became an associate member on 6 May 2015.
  • Pakistan signed an association agreement on 19 December 2014<ref name="PAK">Template:Cite web</ref> and became an associate member on 31 July 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Cyprus signed an association agreement on 5 October 2012 and became an associate member in the pre-stage to membership on 1 April 2016.<ref name="cyprus-assoc" />
  • Ukraine signed an association agreement on 3 October 2013. The agreement was ratified on 5 October 2016.<ref name="ukraine" />
  • India signed an association agreement on 21 November 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The agreement was ratified on 16 January 2017.<ref name="india" />
  • Slovenia was approved for admission as an Associate Member state in the pre-stage to membership on 16 December 2016.<ref name="slovenia-assoc" /> The agreement was ratified on 4 July 2017.<ref name="slovenia-assoc-ratify" />
  • Lithuania was approved for admission as an Associate Member state on 16 June 2017. The association agreement was signed on 27 June 2017 and ratified on 8 January 2018.<ref name="lithuania-assoc-lrp">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="lithuania-assoc-cern">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Croatia was approved for admission as an Associate Member state on 28 February 2019. The agreement was ratified on 10 October 2019.<ref name="international-relations.web.cern.ch" />
  • Latvia and CERN signed an associate membership agreement on 14 April 2021.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Latvia was formally admitted as an Associate Member on 2 August 2021.<ref name="latvia-becomes-AMS-cern" />
  • Brazil became the first associate member of the Americas on 13 March 2024, after signing the associate membership agreement in March 2022.<ref name="brazil-becomes-AMS-cern" />
  • Chile and Ireland were approved as new Associate Member States, subject to completion of the necessary accession and ratification processes in the countries on March 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

International relations

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Three countries have observer status:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

  • Japan – since 1995
  • Russia – since 1993 (suspended as of March 2022)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • United States – since 1997

Also observers are the following international organizations:

Non-Member States (with dates of Co-operation Agreements) currently involved in CERN programmes are:<ref name="member-states">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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CERN also has scientific contacts with the following other countries:<ref name="member-states"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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International research institutions, such as CERN, can aid in science diplomacy.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Associated institutions

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File:ESO and CERN sign cooperation agreement.jpg
ESO and CERN have a cooperation agreement.<ref name="ESO-201310">Template:Cite web</ref>

A large number of institutes around the world are associated to CERN through current collaboration agreements and/or historical links.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The list below contains organizations represented as observers to the CERN Council, organizations to which CERN is an observer and organizations based on the CERN model:

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.cern

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Template:Infobox Top level domain

.cern is a top-level domain for CERN.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was registered on 13 August 2014.<ref name="IANA">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 20 October 2015, CERN moved its main website to https://home.cern.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Open science

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The Open Science movement focuses on making scientific research openly accessible and on creating knowledge through open tools and processes. Open access, open data, open source software and hardware, open licenses, digital preservation and reproducible research are primary components of open science and areas in which CERN has been working towards since its formation.

CERN has developed policies and official documents that enable and promote open science, starting with CERN's founding convention in 1953 which indicated that all its results are to be published or made generally available.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Since then, CERN published its open access policy in 2014,<ref>Template:Cite report</ref> which ensures that all publications by CERN authors will be published with gold open access and most recently an open data policy that was endorsed by the four main LHC collaborations (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The open data policy complements the open access policy, addressing the public release of scientific data collected by LHC experiments after a suitable embargo period. Prior to this open data policy, guidelines for data preservation, access and reuse were implemented by each collaboration individually through their own policies which are updated when necessary.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>

The European Strategy for Particle Physics, a document mandated by the CERN Council that forms the cornerstone of Europe's decision-making for the future of particle physics, was last updated in 2020 and affirmed the organisation's role within the open science landscape by stating: "The particle physics community should work with the relevant authorities to help shape the emerging consensus on open science to be adopted for publicly-funded research, and should then implement a policy of open science for the field".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Beyond the policy level, CERN has established a variety of services and tools to enable and guide open science at CERN, and in particle physics more generally. On the publishing side, CERN has initiated and operates a global cooperative project, the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics, SCOAP3, to convert scientific articles in high-energy physics to open access. In 2018, the SCOAP3 partnership represented 3,000+ libraries from 44 countries and 3 intergovernmental organizations who have worked collectively to convert research articles in high-energy physics across 11 leading journals in the discipline to open access.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Public-facing results can be served by various CERN-based services depending on their use case: the CERN Open Data portal,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Zenodo, the CERN Document Server,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> INSPIRE and HEPData<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> are the core services used by the researchers and community at CERN, as well as the wider high-energy physics community for the publication of their documents, data, software, multimedia, etc. CERN's efforts towards preservation and reproducible research are best represented by a suite of services addressing the entire physics analysis lifecycle, such as data, software and computing environment. CERN Analysis Preservation<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> helps researchers to preserve and document the various components of their physics analyses. REANA (Reusable Analyses)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> enables the instantiating of preserved research data analyses on the cloud.

All services are built using open source software and strive towards compliance with best effort principles, such as the FAIR principles, the FORCE11 guidelines and Plan S, while taking into account relevant activities carried out by the European Commission.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Public exhibits

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File:CERN Globe of Science and Innovation.jpg
The Globe of Science and Innovation at CERN

The CERN Science Gateway, opened in October 2023,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is CERN's latest facility for science outreach and education. It is home to a range of immersive exhibits, workshops, and shows.

The Globe of Science and Innovation, which opened in late 2005, is open to the public. It is used four times a week for special exhibits.

The Microcosm museum previously hosted another on-site exhibition on particle physics and CERN history. It closed permanently on 18 September 2022, in preparation for the installation of the exhibitions in Science Gateway.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

CERN also provides daily tours to certain facilities such as the Synchro-cyclotron (CERNs first particle accelerator) and the superconducting magnet workshop.

In 2004, a two-metre statue of the Nataraja, the dancing form of the Hindu god Shiva, was unveiled at CERN. The statue, symbolizing Shiva's cosmic dance of creation and destruction, was presented by the Indian government to celebrate the research center's long association with India.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A special plaque next to the statue explains the metaphor of Shiva's cosmic dance with quotations from physicist Fritjof Capra:

Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Arts at CERN

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CERN launched its Cultural Policy for engaging with the arts in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The initiative provided the essential framework and foundations for establishing Arts at CERN, the arts programme of the Laboratory.

Since 2012, Arts at CERN has fostered creative dialogue between art and physics through residencies, art commissions, exhibitions and events. Artists across all creative disciplines have been invited to CERN to experience how fundamental science pursues the big questions about our universe.

Even before the arts programme officially started, several highly regarded artists visited the laboratory, drawn to physics and fundamental science. In 1972, James Lee Byars was the first artist to visit the laboratory and the only one, so far, to feature on the cover of the CERN Courier.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Mariko Mori,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Ill,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Cerith Wyn Evans,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> John Berger<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Anselm Kiefer<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> are among the artists who came to CERN in the years that followed.

The programmes of Arts at CERN are structured according to their values and vision to create bridges between cultures. Each programme is designed and formed in collaboration with cultural institutions, other partner laboratories, countries, cities and artistic communities eager to connect with CERN's research, support their activities, and contribute to a global network of art and science.

They comprise research-led artistic residencies that take place on-site or remotely. More than 200 artists from 80 countries have participated in the residencies to expand their creative practices at the Laboratory, benefiting from the involvement of 400 physicists, engineers and CERN staff. Between 500 and 800 applications are received every year. The programmes comprise Collide, the international residency programme organised in partnership with a city; Connect, a programme of residencies to foster experimentation in art and science at CERN and in scientific organisations worldwide in collaboration with Pro Helvetia, and Guest Artists, a short stay for artists to stay to engage with CERN's research and community.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>

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File:Shiva's statue at CERN engaging in the Nataraja dance.jpg
The statue of Shiva engaging in the Nataraja dance (symbolising his cosmic dance of creation and destruction) presented by the Department of Atomic Energy of India
File:CERN Tram, line number 18.jpg
Geneva tram 18 at CERN

See also

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International:

General:

References

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Archival collections

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Template:CERN Template:Research institutes in Switzerland Template:Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research Template:Authority control

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