The Chief Information Officer
CERN’s scientific leadership is built not only on the expertise of its people but also on the strength and coherence of the technologies that support their work.
As CERN’s digital landscape grows increasingly complex, it is essential that the Organisation’s ICT systems continue to evolve to remain secure, integrated, efficient and aligned with its scientific mission. To support this evolution, CERN has established the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) — a strategic leadership position dedicated to strengthening CERN’s digital foundations and ensuring the Organisation remains at the forefront of technological innovation.
Enrica Porcari
CERN’s Chief Information Officer
Why a CIO – and Why Now?
The acceleration of digital technologies and their transformative impact on research and operations requires agile, coordinated leadership to rapidly capture opportunities and manage risks.
In this role, the Chief Information Officer guides CERN’s digital strategy and drives its evolution in partnership with the CERN community, ensuring that technology advances the Organisation’s mission with clarity, integrity and innovation. The focus is not on directing how departments or experiments operate, but on aligning objectives, fostering collaboration, strengthening CERN’s external leadership in digital innovation, coordinating strategic projects and digital initiatives, and harmonising best practices. This approach follows the principle of “freedom within a framework”: empowering teams across CERN’s services and physics experiments to innovate while operating within a governance structure that ensures coherence, efficiency and shared purpose.
The establishment of the Chief Information Officer marks an important step in how CERN develops and leverages digital technologies in the service of science. By working collaboratively across disciplines and departments, the Chief Information Officer helps ensure that CERN’s digital capabilities continue to evolve in line with the Organisation’s core values: excellence, openness, collaboration and innovation.
The Mandate of the Chief Information Officer
Reporting directly to the Director-General and working as part of CERN’s senior leadership team, the Chief Information Officer provides strategic oversight of CERN’s digital development, guiding transversal digital strategies, policies and governance across the Organisation.
The Chief Information Officer is responsible for shaping and implementing CERN’s organisation-wide digital strategy, strengthening governance and risk management frameworks, and ensuring that digital technologies are deployed in a secure, responsible and sustainable manner across the Organisation.
Responsibilities include:
Leading the design and implementation of a comprehensive digital strategy aligned with CERN’s mission and priorities including AI, Open Science and digital transformation.
Overseeing ICT governance and risk management frameworks.
Developing CERN-wide ICT policies and standards, including data governance, data privacy, and cybersecurity.
Supporting the responsible and ethical adoption of emerging technologies across the Organization.
Building strategic partnerships with academic, industrial, and international stakeholders.
Managing vendor relationships and identifying funding opportunities to drive innovation.
The Governance Structure of the Chief Information Officer
To support the implementation of this mandate, the Office of the Chief Information Officer has been established to provide the people and processes needed to coordinate its activities. The Office focuses on aligning and coordinating transversal computing-related initiatives across the Laboratory, while operational responsibility for service delivery remains with the departments and experiments.
The Office operates through a matrix structure, with staff embedded in different departments contributing part of their time to advancing the Chief Information Officer’s mandate and facilitating collaboration across the Organisation.
Find Out More
To find out more information on the Office of the Chief Information Officer and its governance structure, please see below:
Office of the Chief Information Officer
