About the Centre
The Norwegian centre for CERN-related research (NorCC) enables the participation of Norwegian researchers in long-term experiments at CERN, ensuring Norway's membership of CERN is fully exploited for the benefit of science and society.
CERN is the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, and is an inter-European organization for research in particle physics, nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry. CERN is located just outside Geneva, on the border between Switzerland and France. CERN was founded in 1954, with Norway as one of the 12 original member states. Since then, the number of member states has increased to 25.
The overall purpose of research at CERN is to find out the nature of the universe by answering fundamental questions such as:
- What are the building blocks of the Universe?
- How do they interact?
- How did the birth and development of the Universe occur?
- How are heavy elements formed?
To answer these questions, we use some of the largest and most complex machines ever built. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been CERN's flagship since the turn of the millennium, and was instrumental in the historic discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.
In addition to the research itself, NorCC aims to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers, engage Norwegian industry for deliveries and collaboration, and facilitate technology transfer. NorCC also wants to arouse interest in science and increase awareness of science among the general public.
The member institutions are the University of Oslo (UiO, host institution), the University of Bergen (UiB), the University of Agder (UiA), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the University of Western Norway (HVL) and the University of Southeast Norway (USN). Around 200 people are affiliated with NorCC, and the center has an average annual budget from the Research Council of Norway of NOK 22.85 million.
