Accelerating Innovation Through Partnerships
Highlights from 2024 CERN’s knowledge transfer activities
Management Remarks
“2024 marked CERN’s 70th anniversary, giving CERN Member and Associate Member States and other stakeholders an opportunity to reflect upon the Organization’s achievements to date. It drew focus to how CERN has positively impacted the world, highlighting the virtuous circle of knowledge and innovation – that is, how particle physics leads to technological innovation and human developmental progress far beyond its original remit. CERN was the birthplace of the World Wide Web and played a key role in the early developments of commonly used tools such as touchscreens and medical scanners, for example. We look forward to continuing our voyage of discovery into fundamental particle research and leveraging our findings for societal good.”
Raphaël Bello, CERN Director for Finance and Human Resources
“CERN’s scientists, engineers and researchers’ technical expertise help deliver impact beyond the realm of physics. Our collective knowledge and discoveries are enabling innovators working in fields such as healthcare, environment, and aerospace, as well as those in the digital or quantum computing worlds, to advance their fields at pace. CERN supports these sectors, and others, with delivering progress for those dependent on the services and technologies that they provide.”
Christopher Hartley, Head of Industry, Procurement and Technology
Impact
2024 Innovation Partnerships in Numbers
Pilot Survey of CERN’s Innovation Partners
In 2024, a pilot survey of 37 CERN innovation partners highlighted some interesting results about the direct and indirect benefits that they experienced.
Over 70%
developed new instrumentation, methodologies, or processes used in product development
8 out of 10
increased their knowledge and enhanced their technological problem solving
80%
strengthened
product development
Innovation Through Procurements
Innovation not only happens through dedicated knowledge transfer agreements, but also through technology-intensive procurements. See the results of a 2024 survey.
75%
of suppliers developed new products in the field of
vacuum and cryogenics
particle and photon detectors
optics and photonics
70%
of suppliers have improved their technical knowledge
Who’s Talking About CERN Innovation?
Key Application Areas
Environmental Applications
The CERN Innovation Programme on Environmental Applications (CIPEA) encourages environment-focused innovation using CERN’s technologies and expertise.
Digital Innovations
CERN plays a key role in delivering groundbreaking digital solutions across a wide range of sectors.
Healthcare Advancements
CERN technologies find application in many healthcare-related fields, from medical imaging to radiotherapy, radiopharmaceuticals, global health, handling and mining patient data.
Quantum Technologies
CERN partners with quantum communities to build links with key players – universities, government labs and companies - within the quantum supply chain, help shape the European community and establish co-development opportunities with industry.
Aerospace Solutions
CERN collaborates with the aerospace sector, offering its technologies, facilities, and expertise to fuel innovation and research.
Startups
As CERN’s entrepreneurship programme, CERN Venture Connect, completes its first full year, progress has been made in many domains to foster deep-tech innovation across CERN’s Member and Associate Member States. 2024 was focused on building a solid foundation through a vast partner network crucial for supporting CVC startups with expert guidance and essential resources. The CVC technology portfolio was expanded, offering new opportunities for startups and aspiring founders. During 2024, five startups from diverse industries such as climate tech, consumer goods, and cultural heritage joined the programme, demonstrating the diverse industrial potential of CERN technologies. The year concluded with a celebration of the CVC Programme’s first anniversary at the CERN Venture Connect Summit, which brought together the CERN community and a growing CVC family.
CERN Venture Connect Summit – Boosting Innovation
In just a year, the CERN Venture Connect Programme has blossomed into a thriving innovation network with its community of startups, CERN experts and 48 deep-tech partners across 15 countries
CERN Venture Connect Startup Founder Corner
In 2024, five startups have joined the CERN Venture Connect Programme.
Robert van Tankeren
CEO of InPhocal
The Netherlands
Revolutionising the laser
processing industry
CERN technology in use: Structured laser beam
İlker Bektaş
CEO & Chief Executive Officer of Orbiba Robotics
Türkiye
Advancing regenerative agriculture
with smart robots
CERN technology in use: Structured laser beam
Noemi Zabari
Co-founder of Muotech
Poland
Unlocking new possibilities in imaging with
muon tomography
CERN technology in use: RUCIO
Alejandro Avilés
CEO & CTO of Unconventional
Switzerland
Making flexible conference management possible
with open source
CERN technology in use: Indico
Are you a deep-tech startup founder?
- Network of deep tech venture capitalists, incubators, mentors, and service providers
- Curated state-of-art technologies
- 0% equity, founder-friendly, and express agreements
CERN Venture Connect Technologies
Learn more about the curated CERN technologies available under the CVC Programme, and how they could benefit your company. In 2024, two new technologies were brought into the CVC portfolio – ACCURATE 2A and AstroMesh.
ACCURATE 2A
High-Precision ASIC for Ultra-Low Current Measurements spanning from -1 fA to -20 μA
- Technical precision
- Validated in rigorous environments
- Integration versatility
AstroMesh
Intersatellite Communication and Radiation Monitoring System for CubeSats
- Enhanced communication capabilities
- Technical precision
- Proven performance
- Integration versatility
Explore all the other CERN Venture Connect technologies
CERN Venture Connect Partners
A key ingredient in the CVC Programme is a thriving network of partners, who support the startups in the programme by providing funding, coaching, and more.
In 2024, one year into the CVC’s journey, over 40 deep-tech partners across 15 countries have joined the programme.
Funding & Investment
Startup Support & Development
Legal Advice & Innovation Hubs
Entrepreneurship Highlights
In Focus
Interested in CERN
Technologies?
This report showcases only some of CERN’s knowledge transfer activities where there was significant progress in 2024.
Many thanks to:
The CERN scientists, engineers, technicians who support the Organization’s knowledge transfer mission
All partners who collaborate with CERN on innovation projects
Everyone who has contributed to the content and production of this report
Editorial and Production
CERN Knowledge Transfer group
Website development: Eversis and CERN web team
CERN audiovisual service
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