The Stories of CERN - A Photo-ethnographic Study

"The Stories of CERN" project will carry out a photo-ethnographic study of CERN staff and deliver a catalogue of digital documentary photographic portraits and accompanying textual narratives showcasing the human side of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. As its original contribution, the project will focus on "ordinary" CERN employees - those who contribute greatly to the laboratory's operations and scientific successes, but who typically remain hidden from the public eye.

The intimate environmental portraits will show the study participants in their own work environment and other places at CERN they spend time at and the narratives - to be devised based on in-depth personal interviews - will present a summary of their educational and professional backgrounds and attitudes towards the work at CERN. "The Stories of CERN" catalogue of portraits and narratives will serve as a set of role models to motivate the new generations of STEM professionals and enthusiasts.

The digital catalogue will be used as a resource to develop different educational and promotional tools and activities to be disseminated through INSPIRE - the new STEM Learning Centre at Brunel University. The details of INSPIRE are presented in the enclosed Case for Support.

As the world-leading research and engineering facility operating the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, CERN has been delivering ground breaking science and technology outputs for decades. The results of the research work being carried out in CERN are highly inspirational not only for the scientific community and others already involved in STEM; they also continuously inspire the public at large. CERN is seen as a dream employer by many young people studying STEM-related subjects and many of the youngsters that are unsure about their future career choices become interested in STEM when they learn about CERN activities during visits to the facilities in Switzerland or via other means.

All the deliverables of "The Stories of CERN" project will be fully "embedded" into the programme of activities by the INSPIRE STEM Learning Centre at Brunel University. Consequently, the deliverables will be marketed through the centre's network of partnering schools, colleges, universities and other institutions to achieve the projected audience of 30,000 per year.

The target market for INSPIRE in geographical terms covers the areas of West London and neighbouring counties, including Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Surrey, but also beyond. The diverse mix of the project deliverables, including workshops, online content, ("travelling") exhibition and different external publicity activities will enable the multi-channel distribution of the project outcomes, thus further facilitating the project outreach.