The .cern top-level domain is intended for the exclusive use of CERN and its affiliates, and will soon be open for applications from within the community. Clear governance mechanisms for registration and management of .cern domains have been put in place. Applications for domains may be submitted by current members of the CERN personnel, and must be sponsored by a CERN entity such as a department, experiment, project or CERN-recognised experiment. For more information please refer to the registration policy.

The acquisition of the .cern top-level domain was negotiated via ICANN’s new gTLD programme by a board comprising members of the CERN Legal Service, Communications group and IT department. .cern is one of over 1,300 new top-level domains that will launch over the coming months and years.

The .cern domain name registration form can be found in the service portal and applications will be open from next Wednesday onwards.

Visitors to the CERN website will be redirected automatically after the launch, which is planned for next Tuesday, and existing links and URLs will remain valid.