CERN members voted in favor of the move in Geneva, Switzerland, this week. Estonian had already become a CERN associate member in 2021.

Minister of Economic Affairs and IT Tiit Riisalo (Eesti 200) said: "CERN's industrial procurements are highly technological, while collaboration with CERN brings the opportunity to develop new capabilities, products, and tech, in turn helping to marry the achievements of top-level science with business."

Riisalo said that the procurement processes are "stringent," but "participation, given CERN's global recognition, serves as a strong reference and quality watermark, from the perspective of firms involved in export."

Full membership of CERN also brings Estonia voting rights on its board, finance committee, and scientific policy committee, and scope for contributing to the organization's decision-making processes and governance.

Estonian companies will be able to participate in international industrial tenders without the previously set limits, while former restrictions will also be lifted for Estonian citizens applying for jobs and internships within CERN.

The number of companies registered in the CERN procurement database has grown more than fourfold in two years, from 13 to 59.

So far  electrical equipment manufacturer Harju Elekter is the only company to have obtained a CERN procurement contract worth over a million euros, but other Estonian suppliers to CERN include IT firm Helmes, Tallinn-based electronics firm "Estel," hydraulic hose and pipe kit maker Radius Machining and consultancy firm Miltton Events, the ministry said.

The full CERN membership still requires endorsement from the executive and the legislature, but this is likely to be just a formality.

CERN (pronounced /sɜːrn/) was founded 70 years ago this year and is located in the Meyrin neighborhood of Geneva, with 23 members ahead of Estonia's accession.

CERN's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research, with its flagship Large Hadron Collider (pictured), the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider, being perhaps its most well-known feature.

Among other things, CERN activities mimic the aftermath of the Big Bang by sending beams of protons hurtling into one another at close to the speed of light.

Criticisms of CERN or its activities include those around safety, and even how the organization portrays itself to the public, also the subject of a potential "conspiracy theory". CERN has more recently been reluctant to to give Russian researchers authorship credit on papers.

CERN this week additionally said it would be suspending all cooperation with Russian scientists.

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