Breakthrough Prize PhD Grant

Breakthrough Prize PhD Grant

You get a monthly cost-of-living allowance of about 3,000 EUR (2,820 CHF) for typically one year of PhD research at CERN near Geneva. Health insurance is covered if your home university does not already provide it. If you move with a spouse you get an extra 530 CHF per month; with children, 1,060 CHF per month. The grant comes from the 3 million USD Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics 2025. The four big LHC experiment teams (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb) donated the prize money to the CERN & Society Foundation to send doctoral students to CERN. Your home university still supervises you and awards your PhD, while a senior CERN staff member co-supervises your daily work.

Who can apply

• Degree stage: You are enrolled in a PhD, or about to start one.
• Field of study: Your PhD is in particle physics, nuclear physics or applied physics.
• University: Your home university is a member of one of the LHC experiment collaborations (for example ALICE). This is the key filter.
• Nationality: Any nationality can apply. You can come from a CERN member, associate or non-member state.
• Languages: You have a good knowledge of English and/or French.

How to apply

You apply online through the SmartRecruiters portal linked from your collaboration's page. Before applying, contact a possible supervisor at CERN to define your project. You submit a motivation letter and research plan, your CV, two reference letters and proof of enrolment. For the ALICE line the deadline is 30 April 2026 at 23:59 CEST, and successful candidates are told by the end of May 2026.

How realistic are your chances?

This grant is cut narrowly. You must be a physics PhD student whose home university belongs to a specific LHC collaboration, so the eligible group is small and only that community competes. If you clearly fit those conditions and have a defined CERN project with a prospective supervisor lined up, your prospects are good. Contacting a CERN supervisor early and submitting a concrete research plan is what sets a strong application apart.