On 21 March, the CERN Council formally launched the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, a two-year process involving the whole community that aims to develop a common vision for the future of particle physics in Europe within the international context. The process is expected to be concluded in June 2026 with the approval of the updated Strategy by the Council.
According to the remit of the European Strategy Group (ESG), the aim of the Strategy update is to develop a visionary and concrete plan that greatly advances human knowledge in fundamental physics through the realisation of the next flagship project at CERN; this plan should attract and recognise the value of international collaboration and should allow Europe to continue to play a leading role in the field.
In addition to the input of the particle physics community, the ESG will take into consideration: the status of implementation of the 2020 Strategy update, accomplishments over recent years (including results from the LHC and other experiments and facilities worldwide, progress in the construction of the High-Luminosity LHC, the outcome of the Future Circular Collider Feasibility Study and recent technological developments in accelerator, detector and computing technologies) and the international landscape.
The Strategy update should include the preferred option for the next collider at CERN and prioritised alternatives to be pursued if the chosen preferred option turns out not to be feasible or competitive. It should also indicate priorities for areas of exploration that are complementary to colliders, for other experiments to be considered at CERN and at other laboratories in Europe, as well as for participation in projects outside Europe.
Finally, the ESG will review and update the Strategy and add other items identified as relevant to the field, including: the theory frontier; actions to minimise the environmental impact and improve the sustainability of accelerator-based particle physics; initiatives to attract, train and retain the young generations; and public engagement.
To inform this vital process, the Secretariat of the ESG is calling on particle physicists across universities, laboratories and national institutes to provide input to the process in various forms and at different stages. Details of the organisation and timeline of the full process and how to submit input can be found at: https://europeanstrategyupdate.web.cern.ch
In a first step, the particle physics community is invited to submit written input by 31 March 2025. The portal for the submission, and for follow-up submissions later on, will be via the web page. More details will be communicated later.
This first step will be followed by a Scientific Open Symposium from 23 to 27 June 2025, at which the community will be invited to debate the future orientation of European particle physics. A "Briefing Book" based on the input and discussions will then be prepared by the Physics Preparatory Group (PPG), which will be established by the Council in September 2024. The Briefing Book will be submitted to the ESG by the end of September 2025 for consideration during a five-day-long Drafting Session, which is scheduled to take place from 1 to 5 December 2025.
To allow the national communities to react to the submissions collected by March 2025 and to the content of the Briefing Book, the ESG will offer further opportunities for input ahead of the Open Symposium (with a deadline of 26 May 2025) and ahead of the Drafting Session (with a deadline of 14 November 2025).
"We look forward to a very fruitful process over the forthcoming one and a half years," states Karl Jakobs, University of Freiburg, Chair of the Strategy Secretariat.
