A central ambition of SMARTHEP is to demonstrate that the skills developed in high-energy physics — from real-time data processing to machine learning on heterogeneous architectures — are not only vital to the LHC program but also highly relevant to broader society. This vision came to life in the event “SMARTHEP meets Industry @ CERN”, organized at CERN in collaboration with Confindustria Piemonte, Fondazione Piemonte Innova, the Digital Innovation Hub, and Enterprise Europe Network. Hosting the event at CERN was itself a strategic choice: the organization’s global reputation and scientific heritage provided a strong draw for companies and emphasized the connection between fundamental research and technological innovation.
The initiative originated from one of the ESRs, whose Italian background made it natural to first connect with companies in Italy. This led to a collaboration with organizations based in the Piemonte region, which already play a central role in fostering innovation in northern Italy. Torino, in particular, has been positioning itself as a national hub for artificial intelligence, providing fertile ground for building bridges between SMARTHEP and industrial innovation. Starting from this regional focus created a strong entry point to launch the initiative, but in practice the scope was much broader: industries from across Italy, and even from France, took part in the event.
In total, 23 Italian companies and 2 French companies joined, spanning fields as diverse as Industry 4.0, finance, energy management, and automotive.
To prepare for the event, a catalogue of SMARTHEP ESR activities — including those of affiliated students — was compiled and distributed to the invited industries. This catalogue highlighted the main areas of expertise, projects, and technologies developed in the network, helping companies identify which skills and innovations were most relevant to their domains. A dedicated brochure was also prepared for the invited industries and SMARTHEP’s own industrial partners, ensuring a clear two-way exchange of information. This preparation not only raised the interest of the companies ahead of the meeting but also gave them concrete entry points for discussion during the event.
The event itself took place in person at CERN over the course of two days, with a structured program of presentations and discussions. The material presented focused on the secondments carried out with industry partners and within the LHC collaborations, showcasing projects and technologies that underline the transferability of SMARTHEP’s work to other domains. A highlight was a dedicated networking session where industry representatives could book one-on-one “appointments” with ESRs and with SMARTHEP’s industrial partners. This format gave companies the opportunity to dive deeper into specific projects of interest and facilitated direct dialogue that would have been difficult in a purely plenary setting.
The program also featured a presentation from a representative of CERN’s Knowledge Transfer department, who provided insights into how the high-energy physics community — and CERN in particular — is committed to expanding the reach of its technologies to society. This contribution underlined the broader context of the event: not only were ESRs and industries exchanging ideas, but the host institution itself demonstrated its long-standing commitment to ensuring that innovations developed for fundamental research also benefit society at large.
For the ESRs, the event was a unique opportunity to present their research to non-physics audiences — both technical experts and business leaders — and to understand how their expertise could contribute to solving challenges in industry. For the industries, it was not only a chance to discover CERN’s technologies but also an opportunity to interact with each other. By creating a forum where companies from different sectors could meet and exchange with researchers, the event reinforced the role of SMARTHEP as a connector of communities. Importantly, the collaboration with the Enterprise Europe Network gave the initiative an additional European dimension, showing how academic–industrial bridges can scale beyond the national context.
While the event’s Italian focus was a natural first step, it also demonstrated the potential of planning such initiatives at the European scale from the outset of a network. For future ITNs, building in dedicated industry-focused events across multiple countries could amplify the impact even further, exposing ESRs to a wider range of industrial contexts while helping industry partners connect across borders.
