As with most innovations, there comes a point where a new building technology, new materials, or new software needs to prove itself in a full-scale demonstration environment. In many cases, finding a suitable and credible building site – ready for renovation at the right time and with the right permits - for such a demonstration is not easy, particularly if the demonstration should also involve multiple or different types of structures.

CERN’s Green Village Initiative is a campus containing over 660 buildings of different sizes and ages with accompanying technical and road infrastructure. Throughout each year multiple building renovations take place, making them ideal to test, demonstrate and scale-up new sustainable solutions.

CERN is a new member of the ECTP, which wants to take the same approach with its Green Village Initiative as with its scientific mission, which is to help create new approaches and technological innovations that may have direct societal impacts across many academic fields and industrial sectors. The Green Village Initiative provides a large testbed / demonstration site for the construction industry to develop and test sustainable solutions that benefit the wider society.

The CERN campus itself is a self-governing urban area where over 9000 people work every day, and as an international organization, CERN maintains its own rules and regulations on everything related to its territory. This allows them to take fast decisions and avoid lengthy permitting procedures, making it a neutral and ideal location to run single or multi-partner pilots and demonstrations. If you work with CERN, you do not only gain access to its elaborate infrastructure, but also to top-level expert personnel and the CERN international network.

Feel free to contact CERN in case you/your consortium are looking for a location to host a large-scale and full-sized technical demonstration of new technology or materials related to sustainability in the built environment. CERN prefers to work as part of a European research project collaboration (e.g. Horizon Europe), but direct interaction is also possible provided the technology fits with CERN’s sustainability agenda. With the Green Village campus, CERN is interested in working with you on new technologies and approaches; it is not in the market to buy off-the-shelf products or services.

More details on CERN’s Green Village offer can be found on CERN's Village home | SCE.
You can also contact the Green Village senior project manager directly via roy.pennings@cern.ch