Since 2012, CERN has regularly donated computing equipment that no longer meets its highly specific requirements on efficiency but is still more than adequate for less exacting environments.
Servers and network switches have been donated by CERN to countries and international organisations, such as Algeria, Ecuador, the SESAME laboratory in Jordan, Nepal and Palestine.
If you are interested in acquiring our decommissioned equipment, please see below.
Procedure
If you are a requestor (eg institute, university, school etc) please refer to our Donations Procedure for Future Beneficiaries.
This provides an outline of the procedure, and as well as obligations on the requestor. Please read through this to ensure you fully understand what is required and are happy to proceed.
Contact
If you have any questions or require any clarification - whether as a general enquiry, a requestor, a future beneficiary, or as a past recipient - please contact us on Computing-Equipment-Donations
Donations
Currently in progress - Q1 2025
- 3 procedures in progress
- 7 expressions of interest
Past donations
| # | YEAR | MONTH | COUNTRY/AREA | SERVERS | NETWORK (routers/hub/switches) |
RACKS | Press release |
| 20 | 2026 | June | Nigeria | Donation to UniBen | |||
| 19 | 2026 | February | Egypt | 192 (CPU), 132 disk, 72 frontend | 4 routers, 35 switches | Donation to Fayoum University | |
| 18 | 2024 | April | South Africa | 21 | 4 | Donation of CERN computing equipment to South Africa | |
| 17 | 2022 | January | Lebanon | 144 CPU, 24 disk | CERN computer servers set sail for Lebanon | ||
| 16 | 2021 | February | Ghana | 104 | 5 | Donation of CERN computing equipment to Ghana | |
| 15 | 2020 | June | Egypt | 117 | Donation of CERN computing equipment to Egypt | ||
| 14 | 2019 | May | Palestine | 56 | Donation of CERN computing equipment to Palestine | ||
| 13 | 2018 | July | Nepal | 200 | 12 | CERN donates computer equipment to Nepal | |
| 12 | 2017 | September | Jordan (SESAME) | 56 | Servers to SESAME | ||
| 11 | 2017 | February | Algeria | Computing equipment donation to Algeria | |||
| 10 | 2016 | December | Ecuador | 72 | 2 | 2 | CERN donates computing equipment to Ecuador |
| 9 | 2015 | September | Mexico | 24 | 26 | CERN servers go to Mexico | |
| 8 | 2015 | March | Pakistan | 224 | 30 | Donation of CERN computing equipment to Pakistan | |
| 7 | 2014 | June | Senegal | around 100 | 5 | CERN computing equipment for Senegal | |
| 6 | 2014 | February | Philippines | 50 | 4 | Donation to the Philippines | |
| 5 | 2013 | October | Egypt | 196 | 10 | Egypt receives computers from CERN | |
| 4 | 2012 | November | Serbia | 130 | Objectif Serbie: une seconde vie pour les serveurs du CERN | ||
| 3 | 2012 | Bulgaria | 58 | ||||
| 2 | 2012 | September | Ghana | 220 | 30 | CERN servers donated to Ghana | |
| 1 | 2012 | March | Morocco | 161 | https://cds.cern.ch/record/1432941 |