The CERN festival programme is a way to spread CERN’s spirit of curiosity to the world by interacting with people where they are, reaching out to current and future social and cultural influencers.

With a Science Pavilion present at different music festivals around the world, the project is designed to reach national populations at large, including audiences that are not necessarily interested or attracted by the scientific domain, and with the ultimate goal to encourage people’s interest in STEM and attract future scientific talents. 

The Festival Programme is unique in several ways: 

1. It takes place at music and culture festivals.
2. It targets members of the public that do not usually go to scientific events and would be unlikely to travel to CERN. 
3. It presents science activities for all ages and knowledge in the form of talks, shows and workshops.

Born in 2016, with a first Science Pavilion at a festival in the UK, that attracted 4500 people in 3 days of festival. In 2019, the programme already reached 4 festivals in 4 different countries with more than 20.000 participants at the Science Pavilion!

Impact on society:

• Fostering awareness about science.
• Proving that science, and more particularly basic scientific concepts, are accessible to all if explained and demonstrated in plain language and in an engaging way.
• Explaining the need, value and impact of science on society.   
• Taking the opportunity to bring CERN to a broader range of audiences by explaining what physicists, engineers and technicians are doing at CERN.
• For a young audience, providing information and advice about scientific matters, education etc. (experience has shown that some parents were surprised to discover their children’s curiosity and passion for science), and possibly seeding the next generation of scientists.

Do you believe in science and in the importance of spreading scientific knowledge all around the globe? 

Support the CERN Festival programme with a donation and inspire the scientists of tomorrow, we need young brilliant minds to overcome the main global challenges that we are facing nowadays. 

At the forefront of scientific research and innovation, CERN unites people from all over the world to push the frontiers of science and technology for the benefit of all. Over the years, CERN’s research has been bringing real world changes in society, and we aim to keep doing that for generations to come.

The CERN Technology Impact Fund is a new framework to support CERN technologies with a strong potential to address existing global societal issues, as identified by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

Under this mechanism, the CERN Knowledge Transfer group identifies promising CERN technologies and, with the help of the CERN & Society Foundation, increases their maturity to reach concrete applications in support of UN SDGs.

CERN Technology Impact Fund projects aim to bridge the gap between the technological outputs of CERN’s research and their end applications in a way that will address existing global or local societal challenges – particularly those identified in the UN SDGs.

An effective partnership between multiple actors is essential to ensure the success of this endeavour. If you wish to support the CERN Technology Impact Fund or learn more about how you can be involved, please Contact Us.

These are the projects that are currently being developed:

Arts at CERN is the leading art and science programme fostering the dialogue between artists and physicists.

It consists of several strands, with a goal of providing artists from different disciplines the time and the access to scientific expertise and the community of the laboratory.

• Art Commissions & Exhibitions, A new program that supports new artworks and exhibitions resulting from our artistic residencies
• Collide, a residency award of up to three months to invite artists to further their artistic practice in connection with fundamental research at CERN.
• Accelerate, a country-specific award for artists from different geographies to access the residencies program at CERN.
• Guest Artists visits, short exploratory visits for artists from all over the world to connect with the world of CERN.

If you also believe in the combined creative power of art and science to explore and make sense in the universe, please help us keep the dialogue going. 
 

Open Data for Open Science

Despite the fact that the sharing of research findings has advanced science throughout history, today, data is rarely shared following the release of scientific results.

Data is often far too big or complex to find a home in the traditional publication chains. This prevents researchers and scientists from drawing the full benefit from the results of public research, which leads to a duplication of research efforts and therefore a waste of resources that could otherwise be used for furthering original research.

Access to research data is not the only problem though. It is often very difficult or even impossible to interpret the data without also having free access to the code used to perform any analysis which was published.

Free and easy access to research results, data and analysis code - Open Science - is the very heart of the scientific process. All such information must be available to everyone, anywhere in the world, and needs to be safely stored in a long-term repository available for society at large, if we want society to fully benefit from public research results.

Zenodo was born at CERN with the EC’s OpenAIRE project to address this very need, i.e. to make the publishing, sharing and long-term stewardship of scientific data and software a reality for all researchers. Zenodo taps into CERN’s long standing tradition and know-how in sharing and preserving scientific knowledge for the benefit of all. The scientific community now has the opportunity to store their data in a non-commercial environment, and freely available for society at large.

Zenodo is already capable of accommodating the needs of modest data sets, but this is just a fraction of the overall need for data services in the scientific field. We need your help to expand Zenodo’s features and storage capabilities. With your donation, we can make Open Science for all possible.

You can find out more about Zenodo and latest developments.

The CERN Science Gateway, a new educational and outreach facility of about 7000 m2, will be a unique attraction in the heart of Europe, bringing visitors up close to the science and innovation at CERN. Thanks to authentic and inspiring content, visitors will experience the wider context of scientific research, in the place where science is happening.

The main purpose of Science Gateway is to inspire a diverse audience, to instil in them curiosity for science, and to help them make sense of the science that shapes their lives. In particular, it intends to engage younger students to the pursuit of scientific studies. CERN has joined forces with education leaders to develop, for school children and teachers, a novel way of learning and teaching science.

The Science Gateway will enable interaction with the science and the people working at CERN, the discoveries, the research projects, the innovation, and the peaceful collaboration across nations that makes it all possible.

Finally, Science Gateway will reach out to build ties across CERN member and Associate Member States, and beyond, sharing content and encouraging co-creation with other museums, science centres and education networks.

Private funding is crucial for the completion of Science Gateway, which will be co-developed in close collaboration with donors to reflect a shared vision and common values. The CERN & Society Foundation has launched the capital campaign for the Science Gateway. In-kind contributions of components and services for the building by companies are also being sought.