ALICE Collaboration

What ALICE Collaboration does

ALICE Collaboration is a non-profit scientific research collaboration operating at Point 2 of CERN's Large Hadron Collider, dedicated to studying the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities — specifically the quark-gluon plasma state thought to have existed microseconds after the Big Bang. The collaboration is governed under CERN, an intergovernmental organization with 23 member states, and draws participation from over 200 member institutions globally. ALICE's sole "customers" are the academic research community, with no commercial products, services, or revenue streams; funding flows through CERN member state contributions.

ALICE's core technology is a multi-component detector system comprising specialized subsystems: the Inner Tracking System (ITS) for vertex reconstruction, the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) for 3D track reconstruction and particle identification, the Transition Radiation Detector (TRD), Time-of-Flight (TOF), Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCAL), Muon Spectrometer, Forward Interaction Trigger (FIT), and supporting systems including PHOS/CPV, HMPID, MFT, ZDC, the Central Trigger Processor (CTP), and Detector Control System (DCS). The O2 computing framework handles online (EPN, FLP) and offline (PDP) reconstruction and analysis. Following a major 2021 upgrade, ALICE operated at 500 kHz proton-proton data-taking rates and recorded 53 billion lead-ion collisions during Run 3 (completed June 2026) at 5.36 TeV per nucleon pair.

ALICE does not operate a traditional go-to-market motion. Research outputs are disseminated via peer-reviewed journals, arXiv preprints, conference presentations (ICHEP, QCD workshops), CERN Courier, and public outreach through social media. The collaboration is currently developing next-generation upgrades including ITS-3, FOCAL, and the ALICE 3 next-generation detector proposal for LHC Runs 5 and 6, with a multi-institutional R&D consortium (spanning Mexico, Czech Republic, Hungary, and the US) advancing MID muon identifier prototypes as of August 2025.

Name

ALICE Collaboration

Legal name

ALICE Collaboration

Website

https://alice-collaboration.web.cern.ch

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ALICE Collaboration is a CERN-hosted scientific research collaboration of 200+ member institutions that operates a multi-detector particle physics experiment at the LHC to study quark-gluon plasma and strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Experimental Particle Physics Research

NAICS

Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) (541715)

akta.pro primary industry

Quantum Materials, Qubits & Device Physics Research (HDAGAMAA)

Keywords

• Particle physics detector
• Heavy-ion collisions
• Quark-gluon plasma research
• High-energy physics experiment
• Nuclear physics instrumentation

Headquarters

HQ city

Geneva

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

ALICE designs, builds, and operates a dedicated heavy-ion particle physics detector at CERN's LHC to study the quark-gluon plasma state of matter at extreme energy densities. The collaboration delivers scientific research outputs including peer-reviewed publications, open data sets, and physics measurements from ultra-relativistic heavy-ion and proton-proton collisions, and develops next-generation detector upgrades for future LHC runs.

Product overview

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a particle physics detector experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities. The experiment utilizes a multi-component detector system comprising multiple specialized subsystems: the central barrel detectors (ITS, TPC, TRD, TOF, EMCAL, PHOS/CPV, HMPID) for tracking and particle identification; forward detectors (MFT, FIT, ZDC) for centrality and trigger measurements; the Muon Spectrometer for heavy quarkonia studies; and the CTP and DCS for trigger and detector control. The O2 computing framework provides online and offline data processing. ALICE completed a major detector upgrade in 2021 for Run 3 and is developing future upgrades including ITS-3, FOCAL, and the ALICE 3 proposal for future LHC runs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ALICE 3: Next-generation experiment proposal for LHC Runs 5 and 6, currently in planning and development phase

Products and services

• ALICE Detector Experiment A Large Ion Collider Experiment at CERN's LHC, purpose-built and operated to study heavy-ion and proton-proton collisions at ultra-relativistic energies, with multi-component detector subsystems for tracking, particle identification, calorimetry, muon detection, and triggering. Used by the global particle physics research community.
• O2 (Online-Offline Computing) Framework Combined online-offline computing framework supporting real-time event processing nodes (EPN), first-level processors (FLP), and prompt data processing (PDP) for Run 3 and beyond. Used by physicists and analysts across the collaboration to process and analyze collision data.
• ALICE 3 Next-Generation Detector Proposed next-generation detector concept for LHC Runs 5 and 6, featuring a completely new layout with enhanced capabilities for precision measurements of rare phenomena and heavy-flavor physics, including a proposed MID (Muon Identifier) subsystem.
• Public Data Releases and Analysis Tools Open-access research data, publications, and analysis infrastructure made available to the global scientific community for independent verification and further analysis of ALICE heavy-ion and proton-proton collision measurements.

Quantifiable outcome

• 53 billion lead-ion collisions recorded in Run 3
• +2 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (Mexico)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 August 2025Leading institution in the MID detector development for ALICE 3. Contributed to scintillator detector R&D, DAQ system development, and test beam coordination for muon identification prototypes.
• Czech Technical University in Prague (Czechia)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 August 2025Collaborated on MID detector prototypes including scintillator bar development with Nuviatech (Czech company). Contributed to detector construction and characterization activities.
• HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics (Hungary)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 August 2025Participating in the MID collaboration for ALICE 3 muon identifier development. Contributed to test beam campaigns and prototype testing at CERN T10 beam line.
• Chicago State University (US)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 August 2025US institution contributing to MID detector development for ALICE 3, participating in test beam activities and muon detection prototype research.
• Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, UNAM (Mexico)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 August 2025Mexican research institution contributing to ALICE 3 MID development, including detector prototyping and beam test activities.
• Instituto de Física, UNAM (Mexico)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 August 2025Contributing to MID detector development for ALICE 3, including scintillator detector R&D and muon detection studies.
• Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa (Mexico)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 August 2025Participated in MID detector development including FDD detector performance studies and aging analysis. PhD student research on plastic scintillator development.
• Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados (Mexico)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 August 2025Mexican research center contributing to ALICE detector development activities and muon identifier R&D for future upgrades.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• CMS Collaboration: The second general-purpose LHC experiment at CERN, CMS mirrors ALICE in governance structure, international membership model, detector subsystems, computing frameworks, and CERN-coordinated upgrade roadmap (Phase-2 upgrades parallel to ALICE 3 planning).
• STAR Collaboration: The flagship heavy-ion experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), STAR is the most direct scientific peer to ALICE as it studies quark-gluon plasma at lower energies and uses similar detector subsystems (TPC, EMCal, heavy-flavor trackers) for comparable QGP observables.
• CBM Collaboration: The future fixed-target heavy-ion experiment at GSI's FAIR facility, CBM is the planned European counterpart to ALICE in studying dense baryonic matter and high-rate heavy-ion collisions using similar silicon tracking and TPC-based detector architectures.
• PHENIX Collaboration: The predecessor RHIC heavy-ion experiment at BNL that operated alongside STAR until 2016, PHENIX shared ALICE's focus on QGP observables (J/psi suppression, flow, jet quenching) using comparable detector architectures and collaboration governance.
• ATLAS Collaboration: One of the four main experiments at CERN's LHC, ATLAS is a large international collaboration with 5,000+ members that, like ALICE, operates a multi-subsystem particle detector, runs continuous data-taking during LHC runs, and is organized around collaboration boards and member institutions. While ATLAS focuses on high-pT/precision Standard Model and Higgs physics rather than heavy ions, the structural and operational model is directly comparable to ALICE.
• LHCb Collaboration: A fourth LHC experiment at CERN, LHCb is a similarly structured international scientific collaboration with member institutions, run coordination, detector subsystems, and an upgrade roadmap (LHCb Upgrade I/II) that runs on a comparable timeline to ALICE's Run 3/4 and ALICE 3 plans.
• sPHENIX Collaboration: The next-generation RHIC heavy-ion experiment at BNL, sPHENIX is structured as a CERN-style international collaboration and is purpose-built for precision jet, Upsilon, and heavy-flavor QGP measurements that directly overlap with ALICE's core physics program.

Broad incumbents

• CERN: The intergovernmental organization that hosts ALICE and operates the LHC, CERN is the parent ecosystem for ALICE and provides the accelerator, computing grid, member-state funding, and administrative infrastructure on which the collaboration depends.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ALICEexperiment
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/ALICEexperiment
• Facebookfacebook.com/ALICE.EXPERIMENT
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/alice-collaboration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about ALICE Collaboration