Research Spotlight

Auger: Cosmic rays

Nikhef scientists, together with colleagues from around the world, perform research at the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory, an international observatory for the detection of ultra-high-energy cosmic radiation, located on the plains of western Argentina. They do so to learn more about the nature and origins of this mysterious cosmic radiation.

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Research

Particle Physics

In particle physics, very large detectors are used to study elementary particles. Particles such as protons are accelerated in a particle accelerator, and made to collide with each other. Nikhef is active in ALICE, ATLAS and LHCb at CERN.

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Outreach website

Nikhef's Outreach activities

Want to find out more about our research? On our Outreach website you will find all our outreach activities organised by Nikhef in Amsterdam for the general public, students and teachers. See you at Nikhef!

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Research

Astroparticle physics

Astroparticle physics combines physics and astronomy. In the cosmos, very strong magnetic fields create what can be considered a ‘natural’ particle accelerator. To perform astrophysics research, scientists ‘just’ need to build the right detectors. Nikhef is active in KM3NeT, Auger, XENON1T/nT and Virgo.

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News

KM3NeT detects the highest energy neutrino ever observed

The KM3NeT Collaboration announces the detection from the abyss of the Mediterranean Sea of a cosmic neutrino with a record-breaking energy of about 220 PeV.

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Research Spotlight

LHCb: Antimatter and b-quarks

Nikhef is member of the LHCb experiment, one of the detectors at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva. Here, together with international colleagues, Nikhef scientists try to find answers to the many questions surrounding topics such as matter and anti-matter.

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Technology at Nikhef

Technology departments

The technology departments at Nikhef employ about 80 people. They support the scientific projects by designing and building (parts of) detectors, accelerators, readout and control systems, and computer and network infrastructures.

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National Institute for Subatomic Physics

Welcome to Nikhef. We are the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics. Our institute performs research into the elementary building blocks of our Universe, their mutual forces and the structure of space and time.
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Please note that some of the content on our homepage and further pages has not been translated into English yet.

Recent news

28 August 2025

Smart Skills Lab to share knowledge Einstein Telescope with industry

A new laboratory in Maastricht will make the technology from the Einstein Telescope research accessible to the business community. Over the coming years, the new ETpathfinder Smart Skills…

26 August 2025

Second connection point installed in deep sea for French section of KM3NeT

In mid-August, a connection point for the KM3NeT neutrino detector was successfully installed on the seabed in the Mediterranean Sea near Toulon. Four detector lines are also connected…

coffee cup with a rabbit on it and a hand holding a small electronic devicecoffee cup with a rabbit on it and a hand holding a small electronic device
6 August 2025

Nikhef proposal brings nano-clock data networks under practical reach

An addition to the standards for network interface modules proposed by Nikhef will play an important role in the introduction of ultra-precise timing in data networks.  “This brings…

Future events

4 September / 5 December 2025

Profile research project: places still available on 16 October and 5 December

Are you in Year 6 of secondary school, are you very curious about subatomic particles and will you soon have to start working on your profile research project…
18 September 2025

PhD defense Alice Biolchini @ VU

Alice Biolchini, PhD at Nikhef, will defend her thesis Thursday 18 September 2025 at 11.45 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. “Beauty from every angle” The universe is fundamentally…
4 October 2025

Science Day 2025

The Science Day 2025 will be held on 4 October. The Science Day (formerly Open Day) of Amsterdam Science Park is a collaboration of Amsterdam Science Park (Science…