Diversity is an asset of humanity, it’s our richness, and we have to use it in the best possible way.

– Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General

Today, many women can finally choose how to live their lives, yet we must remain vigilant in our collective efforts on the continued path toward equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion.

- Ursula Bassler, Former President of the CERN Council

When we experience the collaboration and inclusion of people from diverse backgrounds we experience Creativity, which is key not only to human progress in general, but to scientific progress in particular.

– Barbro Åsman, Chair CERN Tripartite Employment Conditions Forum (“TREF”)

Introducing 25 by '25

We are proud to announce the Enlarged Directorate’s strong endorsement of CERN’s first ever targets-based strategy to boost the nationality and gender diversity within the Staff and Fellows population over the next five years!

The overall gender distribution across the Staff and Fellows population has hovered around 20% women for the past decade. A targets-based, leadership-led strategy, will accelerate the process of increasing the proportion of women from 21.4 % (as of 31 December 2020) to 25% by the end of 2025, with a particular focus on STEM.

For nationality, the overall aim is to improve the ratio of Member States’ budget contribution to hiring rate. In this context, 25% serves as an indicator. Where the concentration of one (or more) nationalities exceeds 25% in any Department or Group, measures will be put into place to turn the trend around going forward.

25 by ’25 is a CERN-wide endeavour. The commitment and efforts of each Department, in close collaboration with the D&I Programme will contribute to the overall progress. Just as collaboration is key to CERN’s scientific success, so it will be in this domain as well.

Read more about the 25 by '25 journey on our dedicated page.