The CIPEA Innovation Day was held at CERN on 27 June. CIPEA, which stands for CERN Innovation Programme on Environmental Applications, was launched in March 2022 with a virtual kick-off event that was a direct, open call for contributions from the whole CERN community. After an intense three-month ideation phase, about 20 experts from different departments pitched innovative projects setting out how the Organization’s technologies, facilities and expertise could be used to achieve a positive impact on the global environment.
Renewable and low-carbon energy, clean transportation and future mobility, climate change and pollution control, sustainability and green science – these topics were all enthusiastically addressed during the day. CERN’s experts brilliantly demonstrated how the diversity of the Laboratory’s technologies translates into a wide range of potential initiatives: accelerator systems for improving clean-tech and reducing pollution, vacuum technologies for renewable energy large-scale distribution, machine-learning algorithms for climate modelling, and innovative systems for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at CERN and beyond.
“Our experts’ work and vision show that CERN can play a significant role in tackling environmental challenges on a global scale: this is not something to be taken for granted. We are proud to be part of such a creative community,” concluded Enrico Chesta, CIPEA Coordinator in the Knowledge Transfer (KT) group.
By the end of the day, 15 highly interesting and potentially impactful projects had been discussed and celebrated. In many cases, the projects involve one or several external partners (academic or industrial) who have shown interest in contributing to the implementation of the project.
This implementation will be undertaken in the coming phase of CIPEA, which will start with the definition of suitable support strategies on a case-by-case basis. Participants will explore the option of bundling new ideas and ongoing projects in focused application areas in order to optimise resources.
Some of the proposed CIPEA ideas have clear market potential and are therefore eligible for the KT Fundprogramme, which this year will focus on environmental applications (the KT Fund selection committee is still accepting applications until 8 August).
The CERN Knowledge Transfer group would like to thank the CERN community for its active participation in the CIPEA call and praises the commitment and inventiveness of those who took part in the ideation phase with such enthusiasm and creativity.