Carlos Moedas, the EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation visited CERN on 1 July. The programme included underground visits in the LHC and the ATLAS experiment, and a dedicated session to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation between both parties.
Under the MoU, CERN and the European Commission (EC) cooperate in a number of diverse areas for the benefit of the European Research Area, such as Research and e-infrastructures, International Cooperation, Open Access and Careers and Mobility of Researchers.
Highlights of this cooperation include strong support by CERN and the EC to SESAME, the Synchrotron Light source in the Middle East, as well as the contribution of CERN to European e-infrastructures, notably the Grid and the European Open Science Cloud. Other highlights include different activities to support the development and innovation potential of research infrastructures in the detector and accelerator domains, as well as the training of numerous young scientists and engineers in various fields of science and technology.