CERN’s Beamline for Schools Competition (BL4S) is a science competition open to high school students from all over the world. The prize is the opportunity to conduct an experiment for 10 days on-site at CERN, in Geneva. Now entering its tenth year, BL4S has enabled CERN to engage 24,209 students from across the globe to experience particle physics research first-hand. 

Through BL4S, students test themselves as innovators, problem solvers and collaborators, and are motivated to embark in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers to meet the growing demand for a stronger workforce with STEM skills. In order to participate, students prepare experimental proposals, often with the help of members of the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) and other physicists 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 participants in BL4S will receive a BL4S certificate. 

The winning teams selected then travel together to CERN, DESY or the University of Bonn to perform their experiment. So far, more than 30 teams have seized this thrilling once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! In 2014, the winning teams came from Greece and the Netherlands; in 2015, Italy and South Africa; in 2016, Poland and the U.K.; in 2017, Italy and Canada; in 2018, India and Philippines; in 2019, The Netherlands and USA; in 2020, Switzerland and Germany; in 2021, Italy and Mexico; in 2022, Egypt, France and Spain; in 2023, Pakistan, The Netherlands and the USA; in 2024, Estonia, Japan and the USA; in 2025, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Türkiye and the USA.

For more information about the competition and the latest updates, please visit the BL4S website.