Serbia became the 23rd member state of the prestigious Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), the government said on Friday.

The Geneva-based research organisation voted unanimously to let Serbia join the club, although the decision is yet to be formally ratified by Serbian Parliament and Unesco.

Cern is a European physics science centre operating the largest particle physics laboratory in the world as well as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a major test site built underground on the French-Swiss border.

Established in 1954, one of its 12 founding members was Yugoslavia, before it left the organisation in 1961. To this day, Serbia is the only ex-Yugoslav country to become full member of Cern – Slovenia became an associate member in 2017, with Croatia announcing plans to do the same in 2019.

Serbia’s membership at Cern will allow Serbian students and scientists to take part in cutting-edge research projects, and will also allow Serbian companies to apply to tenders organised by Cern.

“Membership at Cern will raise the quality of scientific research and allow access to state-of-the-art scientific equipment and technologies… Our scientists will now be able to apply for Cern-sponsored scholarships, research grants, and other scientific projects,” the government said.

Serbia is the only the forth non-EU country – besides Switzerland, Israel, and Norway – to join Cern.

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