CERN Accelerating science

KT group publishes its annual report

As every year, the KT annual report was published in March. The present version of the report was implemented 4 years ago evolving from a standard report to CERN’s Finance Committee to a glossy form, reflecting how CERN transfers knowledge through many different channels and the results achieved. Over 1000 copies are requested every year.

Numerous knowledge transfer activities take place at CERN, even without the involvement of the KT group. This annual report showcases the efforts of the organisation to transfer its knowledge to society, and it presents an opportunity for everyone involved in KT activities at CERN to discuss and show their efforts to the key stakeholders, no matter whether they have already appeared in other communication channels or the KT group was involved.

There are many ways to do knowledge transfer: one is through the activities of the KT group; another is through procurement; and last but not least, through people. The latter refers to the fact that CERN offers a lot of training and education to all persons on site, and certainly to the young people who come to CERN, spend two or three years on the job, are trained, and then leave. One of the responsibilities of the KT group is to evaluate the impact of their stay.

Furthermore, KT is trying to introduce a similar system for people working longer term at CERN since they often participate in certain committees or seminars. KT’s Group Leader, Giovanni Anelli, explains: “There are many people, who spend considerable time giving lectures outside CERN or are involved in committees that make decisions which affect daily aspects of our lives.” Consider, for example, a person who participates in a working group who defines a new international standard. This shows how knowledge from CERN has an impact outside.

Regarding procurement, companies that supplied to CERN over the past years profited from the acquired knowledge and expertise. There are also examples of companies who developed new techniques and improved their line of production after working in close collaboration with CERN experts to meet the CERN’s specifications. Procurement, Anelli believes, is a way to do KT that the Group should further invest on in the future and collect more success stories. A prime example of how working with a lab like CERN creates innovation and a return for our stakeholders is an Italian company, who, thanks to the R&D they did before delivering the final parts for the LHC magnets, significantly improved precision in the production line. As a result, it now qualifies as exclusive supplier for Citroen-Peugeot.

Anelli says: “I see more and more synergies between KT and various groups around CERN. I think that the report demonstrates the number of opportunities arising every year and steadily increasing, as the activities of the group become more known within the Organisation. It is important to exploit these internal communication channels and get more staff involved in knowledge transfer. Still, one of the problems we face is how to get more from the experiments, especially as the intellectual property is shared and owed by many different groups of the collaborations. This is a priority for us and we are making significant efforts to address it, collaborating closely with colleagues from both CERN and outside institutes.”

You can download the report here

Read also in this issue of the PH newsletter an article on the Entrepreneurship Meet-Ups organized by the KT group and learn how you can get involved