R&D&I

Stimulating instrumentation in research

At IdeaSquare, we host and support Research & Development & Innovation (R&D&I) Projects linked to CERN, as well as selected Knowledge Transfer (KT) activities. The activities under our R&D&I area aim to stimulate early-stage ideas that can eventually turn into e.g. European Union (EU) funded projects or lead into other new technology development initiatives.

Fundamental research is CERN’s primary mission. Inspired by the way science is done at CERN, IdeaSquare exposes CERN scientists and engineers to exceptional students and young innovators to cast “out-of-this-world” ideas through experimental methods and a collaborative approach. In addition to offering physical space for detector R&D, the purpose is to inspire next-generation scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs by exposing them to the frontier R&D environment at CERN.

Currently we are supporting the following initiatives:

CENF is a large physics experiment and a R&D project

that looks for dark matter through fundamental physics beyond the Standard Model and contributes to fundamental research in neutrino physicsat particle accelerators worldwide. IdeaSquare offers its laboratories (dark room, clean room, etc.) to CENF engineers and designers, and allocates CBI students interested in possible new technology uses to help them. Thanks to this, during 2019-2020.

Knowledge Transfer

IdeaSquare is a close and natural partner of CERN’s Knowledge Transfer Group (KT), whose mandate is to maximise the impact of CERN’s technologies in society. A number of KT’s entrepreneurship-related events have been hosted and supported by IdeaSquare for many years.

In its initial phase, IdeaSquare hosted 2-3 detector R&D projects related to experiments at CERN, funded by the EU. IdeaSquare is also used as an active test bed for the ATTRACT initiative, a wider proposal accepted by the European Commission for a dedicated detector R&D programme as part of Horizon 2020 framework programme.