Life at CERN

CERN & the European Commission – promoting conditions for researchers

As part of our collaboration with the European Commission, CERN subscribes to the principles of the European Commission’s European Charter of Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. These principles are best practice guidelines, designed to promote equal rights and obligations for individual researchers throughout Europe by specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, as well as those of funders and/or employers of researchers. They promote attractive research careers and boost employment and working conditions for European researchers.

CERN was granted the HR Excellence in Research Award of the European Commission in the framework of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HR4SR) following the success of its application in December 2018. CERN is now listed among the HRS4R acknowledged institutions.


CERN strives to keep its webpages and online application experience dynamic and enjoyable for its visitors and candidates and carries out regular benchmarking studies for continuous improvement.

In the Potentialpark Study Europe 2022, of the 105 companies surveyed CERN ranked #15 overall, #22 in the category Career Website, #10 in the category Social Media, #58 in the category Applying Online, and #47 in the category Mobile. View the 2022 ranking of the most talent friendly employers in Europe.

Since 2002, Potentialpark’s market research has brought the voice of the candidates to both employers and universities.

CERN also features in the Universum 2022 top 10 ranking: by engineering students (ranked 6th) and natural science and IT students (ranked 5th) of the best companies to work for in Switzerland.

Last but not least, in 2021 CERN is among the finalists in the Linkedin Talent Awards 2021, Switzerland Best Talent Acquisition Team!