CERN’s Director-General established the CERN against COVID-19 task force in March 2020 to collect and coordinate ideas and contributions from the CERN community of over 18 000 people worldwide to the societal fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. These initiatives drew on scientific and technical expertise and facilities at CERN, in the Member State countries and beyond, and were carried out with that community and in close contacts with the relevant health institutions and experts from other fields.

We were very encouraged by the hundreds of emails we have received, and the enthusiasm of the community. Ideas ranged from the deployment of CERN’s powerful computing, engineering and technical resources to contribute to the global fight against COVID-19, to assisting the local effort through logistical and emergency response support.

The objective of the CERN against COVID-19 initiative was to ensure effective and well-coordinated action, drawing on CERN’s many competencies and advanced technologies and working closely with experts in healthcare, drug development, epidemiology and emergency response so as to maximise the impact of our contributions. Proposals and ideas were made by members of the CERN community.

The Task Force is now in standby mode but our News page continues to be populated with stories relevant to CERN’s contribution to combating COVID.