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Doctoral Students Guide at CERN
CERN does not award PhD degrees. You must remain enrolled at your home university throughout your doctoral work. Make sure you understand your university's requirements before starting at CERN.
CERN & Doctoral Students
CERN does not award PhD degrees. Your doctorate is granted by your home university, and you must remain registered there throughout your time at CERN. What CERN does provide is a world-class research environment, access to unique experimental facilities, and expert supervision for your doctoral research.
You will typically have both a CERN supervisor for day-to-day research guidance and a university supervisor for academic and thesis requirements. The typical duration for doctoral work at CERN is 3 to 4 years, depending on your university's programme and your research progress.
Doctoral Student Programme
The CERN Doctoral Student programme is the main channel for PhD students to work at CERN. It is open to students enrolled in a doctoral programme at a university in a CERN Member or Associate Member State. To be eligible, you must be enrolled in a PhD programme, have a university supervisor, and your research topic must align with CERN's scientific activities. There are typically two application rounds per year.
Doctoral students receive a limited-duration contract, usually up to 3 years. The contract includes a monthly stipend that covers living expenses in the Geneva area, a travel allowance for one return trip per year to your home institution, and health insurance through CHIS. The exact stipend amount is reviewed periodically.
Thesis at CERN
Your thesis is submitted to and evaluated by your home university, following their academic procedures and requirements. Your CERN supervisor provides day-to-day research guidance, helps you navigate the CERN environment, and typically serves on your thesis committee or as an external reviewer. You may have a thesis committee with members from both CERN and your university, and regular progress reviews are common practice.
All theses based on work done at CERN must be registered in the CERN Document Server (CDS) under the CERN-THESIS collection. This ensures your work is archived and accessible to the broader research community. CERN requires open access publication of your thesis.
Hyper-Authorship
Large experimental collaborations at CERN (such as ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb) publish papers with author lists of 3,000 or more physicists. This practice is known as hyper-authorship. If you are a member of one of these collaborations, you will appear as an author on all papers published during your membership period, regardless of your direct involvement in each analysis.
While hyper-authored papers demonstrate collaboration membership, they may not clearly show your individual contribution. It is important to highlight your specific analysis contributions separately on your CV. Your thesis itself and any single-author or small-group papers you publish are essential for demonstrating your individual research capability, so discuss your publication strategy with your supervisors early.
Practical Matters
Doctoral student contracts are typically for up to 3 years. Extensions may be possible in exceptional cases but are not guaranteed. As a CERN doctoral student, you are covered by the CERN social security scheme, which includes pension contributions and insurance coverage during your contract. You are also enrolled in CHIS (CERN Health Insurance Scheme); see the health insurance page on this site for details about coverage and the droit d'option if you live in France.
CERN hostel rooms may be available for your initial weeks, but after that you will need to find private housing. The CERN Housing Service can help with your search. A travel allowance is also provided for attending conferences, workshops, and visits to your home university. Discuss your travel plan with your supervisor and the relevant CERN department.
Computing & Resources
Upon arrival, you will receive a CERN computing account that gives you access to email, the CERN network, and all central computing services. For analysis work, the lxplus interactive login service provides access to a shared Linux computing cluster; connect via SSH using your CERN credentials. You will also have personal and project storage space on EOS, CERN's large-scale storage system.
For version control and code collaboration, use CERN's GitLab instance, where most experiments and groups maintain their software repositories. Indico is used for scheduling meetings, conferences, and events, while Mattermost is CERN's internal messaging platform for team communication.
After Your PhD
After completing your PhD, you can apply for CERN Research or Applied fellowships, which are competitive positions lasting 1 to 3 years. Many former CERN doctoral students also continue in postdoctoral positions at CERN, at other laboratories, or at universities worldwide.
When your contract ends, you must complete the CERN departure procedure, which includes returning equipment, settling accounts, and obtaining clearance from various services. CERN also has an active alumni network that you should stay connected to for career opportunities, events, and to maintain your professional network in high-energy physics and beyond.
Tips
Maintain close contact with your home university throughout your time at CERN. Regular communication with your university supervisor and department is essential, and you should not let the physical distance create an academic gap. Take advantage of CERN's extensive academic training programme, which offers lectures and courses that are excellent for broadening your knowledge and meeting researchers from other fields.
Make the most of CERN's central position in the physics community by attending workshops, presenting your work, and building your professional network early. Finally, plan your thesis writing timeline well in advance. Do not leave the writing to the last months; start structuring your thesis and writing chapters early to avoid unnecessary stress near your submission date.