We are proud to present to you the Annual Report 2020 of the CERN & Society Foundation.

2020 has been a year marked by many unexpected challenges throughout the world. However, in some cases, creative solutions and innovative ideas came into play, to make possible what was not otherwise.

We began the year with the ATLAS PhD Grant Awards, which were held in February 2020 at the Globe of Science and Innovation. Once COVID hit Europe in March, the CERN sites were partially shut down and we moved to online offices. Despite this unprecedented setting, the Beamline for Schools Competition and the CERN Entrepreneurship Student Programme continued in an online format. In June 2020, we had a change in the board members of the CERN & Society Foundation, where we welcomed Michael Spiro as the new Chairman of the Board and Fido Dittus as the new Board Member designated by CERN.

Moreover, the end of the year saw the successful launch of Sparks! the serendipity forum for multi-disciplinary science & innovation public event. We also launched the new CERN Technology Impact Fund along with the Knowledge Transfer team to fund CERN projects which will help to make concrete contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the United Nations. Finally, the capital fundraising campaign of the CERN Science Gateway made significant headway allowing construction to begin.

We thank all our donors who have made this year’s achievements possible. At the CERN & Society Foundation, we believe it is our duty to nurture the next generation of scientists, to bring about lasting change in STEM education facilities of the world, to make accessible technologies that are now at the forefront of science, and to foster new connections between art and science for better expression in the world. To read a detailed report about the impact of the CERN & Society Foundation in 2020, click the box below.