CERN was established in 1954 as an international organisation. Today, CERN has 23 member countries - including Denmark that has been a member since the beginning - and a number of associated contries and observers including other countries, the European Union and UNESCO.
HL-LHC CERN upgrade
Since 2014, CERN has been working with an upgrade of the LHC accelerator, to exploit the full potential. The upgrade is called HL-LHC (High Luminosity LHC).
The project and the financing was approved by CERN Council in 2016. The total cost is CHF 950 million, or approx. DKK 6,5 bn, covered within the fixed contributions from the member states. The duration of the upgrade is expected to last until 2026, followed by 10 years of science operations. HL-LHC is expected to deliver 10 times as many data as the original design of the LHC.
The value of Danish membership
Danish participation in CERN allows Danish physicists to partake among the elite of high-energy physics and also grants access to the laboratory for Danish private enterprises, engineers and students. CERN actively work for knowledge sharing, for example medical use of accelerator technology. Danish membership also permits Danish use of the possibilities with CERN summer student, PhD and postdoc programmes and Danish employment opportunities at CERN.
A number of Danish companies deliver high tech products to CERN. BigScience.dk mediates contact between CERN and Danish private enterprises. In 2015, BigScience.dk held the promotion tour "Denmark @ CERN" - a forum in which 19 Danish companies initiated direct dialogue with CERN employees regarding opportunities for industrial contracts at CERN.
Denmark participates in several experiments at CERN’s accelerators and the Large Haldron Collider (LHC). Additionally, Denmark is a partner of Nordic collaboration on computing and grid computing through the Nordic e-Science Infrastructure Collaboration (NeIC).
Danish contribution to the membership
Denmark’s contribution to CERN is approx. DKK 137 million annually. The contribution covers development and operation of the common infrastructure at CERN including the accelerator ring, LHC. Experiments at CERN are organised as separate consortia and are predominately payed directly by the participating institutions apart from the common budget.
Danish CERN related activities are coordinated through the National Instrument Center for CERN Experiments (NICE).