Mandate of the CERN against COVID-19 group

The CERN against COVID-19 group was set up by the CERN management to collect and coordinate potential ideas and contributions from CERN’s scientific community of over 17 000 people worldwide to the societal fight against COVID-19. These initiatives will draw on technical and scientific expertise and facilities at CERN, in the Member State countries and beyond and will be carried out in collaboration with that community.

The group will collect and analyse input via messages sent to the fight.covid@cern.ch mailing list and via personal contacts. In this way the group will:

  • Collect ideas and initiatives from CERN’s scientific community, as well as opportunities identified by members of the task force.
  • Organise these efforts by themes and coordinate them so as to avoid duplication
  • Implement and/or provide support to initiatives with focus on those leveraging on the technologies and specific competences of CERN’s community. 
  • Liaise with other bodies, such as the WHO and local hospitals for medical aspects, with the support of the HSE and KT units, allowing to assess the relevance of the proposed projects and actions;
  • Liaise with other national laboratories, research centres and universities;
  • In agreement with management, authorise use of equipment and resources,  while preserving the ability of CERN to operate through the emergency and restart normal activity smoothly when the situation allows;
  • Liaise with the SMB, the HSE unit, the KT group, the Legal Service and the Host States Relations office concerning access requests, logistics, safety aspects, regulatory, data privacy and legal aspect,  for initiatives within CERN’s territory and beyond.

The work of the group will contribute to helping society to tackle the emergency, working with relevant experts from other fields wherever necessary. In line with CERN’s mission and competences, the group will also work to facilitate educational initiatives. Ideas and proposals will be scrutinised with a rigorous scientific approach, and those where the CERN community has particularly useful expertise, technologies and equipment will receive high priority. 

The group will create web pages to inform various audiences of its work. These pages will keep the CERN community informed of the initiatives being carried out, and offer opportunities to contribute. Public-facing pages will inform a broader audience of the efforts being taken by CERN and its community.

The group will report to the Enlarged Directorate.