CERN’s role in international cooperation
In 2025, CERN knowledge transfer collaborations have been supporting large-scale research infrastructures, enabling new applications, and accelerating innovation in fields ranging from healthcare to space and fusion energy to quantum technologies and environmental sustainability, among others.
Accelerating cancer research
To strengthen collaboration efforts, in 2025, CERN became a member of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). The UICC aims to unite and support organisations working to reduce the global cancer burden, promote greater equity, and ensure that the disease continues to be a priority in the world health and development agendas.
CERN is also a member of the External Advisory Board of the Innovative radiotherapy Domain of WP10 “Hi tech medical resources” of JANE-2 (Joint Action on Networks of Expertise on Cancer) – a 4-year, EU-funded project that formally started in November 2024, with substantive work carried out in 2025 and continuing today, with the collaboration running until the end of 2028. The project aims to create seven Networks of Expertise to improve cancer care, prevention, and research across 29 European countries, focusing on complex or poor-prognosis cancers, survivorship, and cancer in young adults.
Partnerships for space
In March 2025, CERN signed an agreement extending its involvement in the Einstein Telescope (ET) – a proposed underground infrastructure that will host a gravitational-wave observatory. The ET will, for the first time, explore the Universe through gravitational waves along its cosmic history up to the cosmological dark ages, with the aim of answering long held questions of fundamental physics and cosmology. The collaboration builds on existing agreements with leading European institutes, including Nikhef in the Netherlands and INFN in Italy, and reflects a mutually beneficial exchange. CERN will be sharing decades of experience in designing and operating complex underground infrastructures, while gaining insights that may be relevant to its own future facilities.
The 50th anniversary of the European Space Agency (ESA) was an opportunity to reflect upon a decade of joint innovation with CERN in areas such as software distribution, radiation testing and advanced electronics. CERN-developed technologies like CernVM-File System have been used in ESA missions, supporting distributed data processing for space science. In parallel, CERN facilities and expertise are used to test space-qualified electronics under radiation conditions. Further, in June 2025, CERN engineer and ESA astronaut, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, travelled to the International Space Station (ISS) where he tested a radiation monitor based on CERN technology. The SpaceRadMon-NG, developed in collaboration with Polish startup, SigmaLabs, is still onboard the ISS and sharing data back to Earth, helping to protect astronauts and equipment.
Collaboration on other European Union projects
In 2025, CERN worked on multiple other European Union projects, including: TRUSTroke and UMBRELLA, which focus on improving stroke prevention, treatment and management by using CERN’s expertise in FL systems; Edge SpAIce, which uses edge AI technologies for space applications, enabling resilient, low-latency data processing directly on satellites and space infrastructures; and HEARTS, which is establishing high-energy heavy-ion irradiation facilities to expand Europe’s capability to test and qualify electronics and materials for space environments by mimicking the effects of galactic cosmic rays and enabling advanced shielding and radiobiology research; for example.
Fusion for Energy collaboration
In September 2025, CERN and Fusion for Energy (F4E) signed a framework collaboration agreement that explicitly includes knowledge and technology transfer. The agreement covers joint activities in engineering, testing and R&D, with relevance for future fusion facilities and other large-scale infrastructures. By aligning two organisations that share similar technical challenges, from superconducting magnets to complex project execution, the partnership creates structured channels for exchanging methods, standards and expertise.
Keeping time on quantum technologies
CERN strengthened its role as a convener of international innovation ecosystems in 2025 when hosting the annual QUiC Summit, bringing together industry leaders, researchers and policy stakeholders from across Europe. Through its Quantum Technology Initiative, CERN is increasingly seen as a platform where early-stage technologies in the quantum sector can meet industrial needs, supporting co-development and future commercialisation. It is also delivering practical advancements, such as through collaboration with private sector and academic partners in the setting up of a Geneva Quantum Network.
Helping improve environmental sustainability
CERN’s Innovation Programme for Environmental Applications (CIPEA) showcased a growing portfolio of projects in November 2025, many of them developed in close collaboration with industry. Notably, more than 80% of CIPEA project funding comes from external partners. From advanced sensing to data analytics, these projects demonstrate how CERN know-how can contribute to addressing global environmental challenges.
CERN support for impactful projects
Supporting all these activities are CERN’s internal knowledge transfer mechanisms, which continue to act as catalysts for international cooperation. The Knowledge Transfer Fund and Medical Applications Budget have provided targeted support to projects with clear socio-economic impact potential. By offering not only funding but also knowledge transfer expertise, CERN supports its employees to engage more effectively with international collaborators in industry, healthcare and academia.
Whether through formal framework agreements, shared technology platforms, ecosystem-building events or targeted funding instruments, CERN’s expertise is being mobilised well beyond particle physics. This helps to deliver lasting benefits for science, industry and society.