CERN
is the world's largest particle physics centre and one of Europe’s first joint ventures (1954) for research and high-tech activities. The CERN scientific programme is mainly based on the construction and future operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) (due to start in 2007) and its four experiments: ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb. CERN is currently building a Long-Baseline neutrino beam, the first in Europe, aimed at the Gran Sasso Laboratory 730km south of Geneva (CNGS: CERN Neutrino beam to Gran Sasso). Currently, around 500 institutes and universities from all over the world, mainly from the Member States, are involved in the research and technology programme of the Laboratory, in physics and on a wide range of applied disciplines.

DESY
is the second largest accelerator laboratory in Europe. The scientific programme is centred on the HERA facility, a high energy electron-proton collider, and its two experiments ZEUS and H1. Current experiments are probing the internal structure of the proton to unprecedented precision, setting stringent limits to possible substructures of quarks and leptons and to the production of new particles.   DESY is at the forefront of the superconducting technologies for high energy linear electron accelerators (the TESLA project) and for Free Electron Laser. Physicists from Institutions all over the world participate in DESY experiments.


The Gran Sasso Laboratories
of INFN are located beside the Gran Sasso Tunnel (10.4 km long) on the highway connecting Teramo to Rome (Italy). The underground structure consists of three experimental halls, enclosing a volume in excess of 180,000 m³. The experimental programme features the study of solar neutrinos, double beta decay, and the search for dark matter. The Laboratory will host two detectors (OPERA, ICARUS) for CNGS from CERN (at a distance of 730 km) built and operated by wide international collaborations.

The Pierre Auger Observatory
in Mendoza (Argentina) is the most ambitious project ever undertaken for the study of the ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR). There is no known acceleration mechanism to reach such energies. The PAO is a hybrid detector, combining information from ground-based particle detectors and atmospheric fluorescence detectors.
More than 200 physicists from 55 institutions now collaborate in building the Observatory. There are projects to build a similar installation in the Northern Hemisphere.