Beamline for Schools
“Beamline for Schools caught my attention because of the unique opportunity it provides to high schoolers from all around the world to work with a particle accelerator facility, as well as with professional scientists and physicists.”
Winner of the 2025 edition
From dreams to beams
The CERN Beamline for Schools (BL4S) competition is a science competition open to high school students from around the world. The prize consists of the opportunity to conduct a 10-day experiment on a real beamline. BL4S has enabled CERN to engage more than 24,000 students worldwide.
Through BL4S, students test their innovation, problem-solving, and collaboration skills and are motivated to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in order to meet the growing demand for skilled workers in these fields. To participate, students prepare experiment proposals, often with the help of members of the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) and other physicists from around the world.
The shortlisted teams win a cosmic ray detector for their school (introduced for the first time in 2016), a BL4S T-shirt for each team member, and, for some, the chance to visit a nearby physics laboratory. All BL4S participants will receive a BL4S certificate.
The winning teams then travel together to CERN, DESY, or the University of Bonn to carry out their experiment. To date, more than 30 teams have seized this unique and exciting opportunity!