Mandate

The Non-Member State Section is responsible for relations between CERN and its Non-Member States, including the Observer States, as well as relations with Associate Member States that recently acceded to the Organization, in view of their integration.

Activities

Within the Stakeholder Relation Sector, the Section support the CERN Management, other Sectors and experimental collaborations in relations with Non-Member States and Associate Member States that recently acceded to the Organization. This includes also Japan and the United States, that holds Observer status with the right to attend restricted sessions of the Council dealing with LHC and High-Luminosity LHC matters.

The Section’s main activities are:

• facilitates the integration at CERN of Associate Member States that recently acceded to the Organization, liaising with the competent authorities, delegates to the Council and its subordinate bodies, the research community;
• develops and enhances links with government agencies and academic and research institutions in the Non-Member States, including the Observer States;
• run specific externally funded capacity-building activities for Non-Member State nationals within the externally financed Non-Member State Summer Student and Doctoral Student programmes;
• promotes and implements CERN’s geographical enlargement policy.

The section maintains a complete and up-to-date record of the participation in the CERN programme of Non-Member States laboratories, universities and institutes. Information on the particle physics effort and potential in each country is collected, curated and collated for use by CERN sectors, activities and projects. Visits to the Laboratory by senior officials are initiated, as well as exploratory visits to individual countries by CERN staff to establish contacts in the academic and research communities as well as relevant industrial partners. 

The section also assists in the preparation of relevant co-operation agreement at a national or institutional level to facilitate the participation of the Non-Member State research communities in CERN’s research and accelerator programmes. The section also arranges and participates in relevant co-ordinating committees between CERN and specific countries to review and strengthen bilateral cooperation.

Head of Non-Member State Relations: Salvatore Mele