Scientists, politicians, the public, school children, our neighbours, you. All of these groups of people have a stake in CERN, and all are important to us.

The list of stakeholders in an organisation as large and complex as CERN is a long and ever lengthening one. Each group has its own specific interests and needs in terms of what kind of information it requires from CERN and how we should engage. It’s important, therefore, for us to ensure that we’re communicating optimally with everyone we care about and who cares about us.

This is something that CERN has always taken seriously. The CERN Courier, for example, was first published in 1959 and we had a pro-active public information office right from the start. Today, our stakeholder relations are spread between several groups and teams, reflecting the nature of CERN today. But while we’re already doing a good job, I think we can do better by exploiting the synergies between these teams, and that’s why we’re launching a new Stakeholder Relations Office comprising the leaders of those teams.

The groups will not merge, rather their leaders will form a new team, meeting regularly and reporting to management on how best to engage with our ever increasing number of stakeholders, providing them all with the information they need in forms appropriate for them. The Stakeholder Relations Office will do this in keeping with the spirit of the CERN Convention, which urges us to make the results of our work as widely and openly available as possible. With CERN being a household name these days, it’s important that we care about those who care about us.

You’ll find further information on the Stakeholder Relations Office’s mandate here.