The University of Oviedo is the first Spanish university to sign a collaboration agreement with the European Association for Nuclear Research (CERN). Both institutions will promote research in the field of fundamental physics, mathematics and engineering (sofware, mechanical, eletrical, electronical, control and telecommunications).

The prestigious European laboratory has signed collaboration agreements with a selected list of universities around the world, and in the case of Spain, the Asturian academic institution is the first and only one to have achieved this. For seven years, the University of Oviedo and the CERN have maintained a constant collaboration, which has led more than 70 Asturian graduates to have already completed their internships of up to 3 years in the laboratories of the European Nuclear Organization.

The Rector, Vicente Gotor, signed this morning the framework document of the agreement, valid for five years, alongside Lluís Secundino Miralles Verge, director of the Deparment of Services of Infrastructures of the CERN. The Vice-Rector for Research and Campus of International Excellence, Paz Suárez Rendueles, and Professor Víctor Manuel González, coordinator of the project for the University, were also present during the ceremony.

Moreover, the prestigious scientific institution, winner of the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research last year, elected last April the Asturian instituion as the site of its first Spring Campus in Spain, with the participation of 80 students.

The agreement includes several fields of collaboration between the researchers of the University of Oviedo and the scientific team of the CERN, such as the control software of the collider; Particle Physics; Security and Environmental Services Engine; Electric Engineering; Industrial Control and Engineering; Mechanic and Material Engineering; Advanced Information Systems; Building Engineering; Management and Support of Services, or the development of software for IT installations.

Both institutions have committed themselves to jointly publish the results of the research in Open Access. The researchers and students from the University who participate in any of the joint activities will be considered as associated members of the staff of the CERN.