Image: SimonWaldherr [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Baltic country joins European nuclear research organisation after six-year application process
Estonia has become the 24th member state of Cern, the European organisation for nuclear research.
Cern, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, operates large-scale research infrastructures including the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator and is world-leading on nuclear physics.
Membership will give Estonia voting rights on Cern’s decision-making council and will allow Estonian nationals to be directly recruited by the organisation. It will also give Estonian industries opportunities to bid for Cern contracts.
Estonian delight
Estonia’s president, Alar Karis, said on 30 August the country was “delighted to join” Cern as a full member.
“Cern accelerates more than tiny particles: it also accelerates international scientific collaboration and our economies,” Karis said.
The move, which ended a six-year application process, “crowns a period of cooperation” that goes back 30 years, Cern’s director-general Fabiola Gianotti said.
“I am sure the country and its scientific community will benefit from increased opportunities in fundamental research, technology development, and education and training,” she added.
The country is the first Baltic state to join Cern in a full capacity; Serbia was the last country to join as a full member state in 2019, while Brazil joined as an associate member state in March 2024.
Thirty years in the making
Estonia has been involved with Cern in various capacities since 1996, having signed an initial cooperation agreement that year.
A second agreement involving more scientific cooperation was then signed in 2010, and in 2021—three years into its formal application process to become a full member—Estonia became an associate member state, as is usual with countries in pre-stage membership.
“We have seen [the] potential during our time as associate member state and we are keen to begin our full contribution,” said Karis.
Estonia already has a team on CMS, a detector for the Large Hadron Collider, which participates in data analysis.
Other scientists from the country have been involved in other experiments, including the Cloud experiment focused on Earth’s temperature and the long-running Totem experiment focused on precise proton measurements.
“I am looking forward to the enhanced participation of Estonia in the Cern Council and to its additional scientific contributions,” said Eliezer Rabinovici, the council’s president.