Brazil’s CERN membership deadline drawing closer

After more than a decade of negotiations, Brazil informed the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, that it is close to completing the process to become an associate member of the organization. The news was first published by the news website Uol and confirmed by The Brazilian Report.

Congress approved the membership in November 2023, and the ratification now sits on the desk of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. As such, Brazil’s status as a CERN associate member state has not yet taken effect, over a decade after negotiations started. And the March 2024 deadline for this step to be completed is just a few weeks away.

Based near Geneva, CERN is one of the leading physics research entities in the world and has the largest particle accelerator in the world. 

In its facilities, scientists from over 20 countries develop technology to detect how the fundamental particles of matter interact in order to understand the universe, as well as its origins and functioning. Brazil will be the only country in the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere to be a member of CERN.

Brazilian scientists, especially from public universities in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, have been carrying out research related to CERN for decades. The associate member status will allow Brazil to obtain further gains, such as the ability to nominate companies to supply raw materials and the construction and maintenance of high-tech equipment used in experiments.

This is a significant leap for the national industry, opening new markets and granting access to new technologies — even though competition from European companies poses major challenges.

“We cannot be commodity exporters forever. We have ores, for example, niobium, which is fundamental for studying the composition of materials. We will be able to make alloys [of niobium], for example, and have this technological transfer that has vast use in the industry,” Science and Technology Minister Luciana Santos said on Brazil’s CERN membership. 

It remains unclear, however, how the membership will facilitate the work of the Brazilian scientific community that is already engaged in CERN-related projects. Uncertainty regarding...