CERN, represented by Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General of the Organization and Bosnia and Herzegovina, represented by Ankica Gudeljević, Minister of Civil Affairs, signed an International Cooperation Agreement concerning scientific and technical cooperation in high-energy physics on Tuesday, 16 February. The ceremony was held partly remotely, with Ms Gudeljević joining Fabiola Gianotti and Charlotte Warakaulle, Director for International Relations, via videoconference.

The International Cooperation Agreement, of which CERN has signed more than 50 with countries all around the world, enables and marks the onset of governmental cooperation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and CERN in the field of science and technology for high-energy physics. The agreement serves as the framework within which further protocols and addenda will allow these relations to flourish.

While the agreement marks the formal beginning of this relationship with the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, collaboration in the form of interaction with the country’s science community has been ongoing since 2009, when the University of Sarajevo made a clear commitment to collaborate with CERN. This appetite for cooperation resulted in the organisation of the Sarajevo School of High Energy Physics as well as Bosnian participation in the summer student programme, the high-school teacher programme, and large-scale regional particle physics projects.

After Slovenia and Croatia both became Associate Member States in recent years, and Serbia became a full member of the Organization in 2019, this International Cooperation Agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina further denotes CERN’s commitment to strengthening ties with a region, the Western Balkans, whose science and physics communities have enlightened the Organization since its creation in 1954, when Yugoslavia was one of its founding members.