CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research
CERN is one of the world's largest centres for scientific research, straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. Founded in 1954, it is a collaboration between its Member States that operates the world's largest particle physics laboratory, home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the experiments that use it, including ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb.
CERN's scientific programme has produced discoveries that reshape our understanding of the universe, most notably the 2012 observation of the Higgs boson. Beyond physics, CERN has a long history of open collaboration and technology transfer: the World Wide Web itself was created at CERN in 1989 to help physicists share information.
Our mission
Fundamental Physics Research
Perform world-class research to uncover what the universe is made of and how it works, from the Higgs boson to the open questions beyond the Standard Model.
Advanced Infrastructure
Provide unique particle accelerators and detectors, pushing them to the frontiers of human knowledge in a sustainable and environmentally responsible way.
Global Collaboration
Unite people from all over the world to push the frontiers of science and technology, for the benefit of all: a model of peaceful, open international cooperation.
Education & Engagement
Train the scientists and engineers of tomorrow, and share the excitement of fundamental science with everyone.
That same culture of openness drives CERN's participation in open science today: curated open datasets from LHC experiments, open-source scientific software used across the research community, and infrastructure built to be shared far beyond particle physics. The CERN Node is one expression of that mission, making CERN's data, tools, and expertise available to the broader European research community through the European Open Science Cloud.
Learn more at home.cern