>>11712300CERN OpenData
http://opendata.cern.ch/honestly, most of the work that leads to "novel" HEP research is done at the researcher's desk at home (remember that CERN is on strict lockdown now due to COVID, but even before covid all the important physics work could be done remotely) so the real brunt of the challenge has nothing to do with going to CERN or anything in terms of physical proximity.
it is true that to have access to the latest, freshest, most exciting data, the CERN LHC experiments require you to be "a part" of the experiment whose data you are using. even a person on ALICE can't go and analyze the data of LHCb, for example. so the freshest data is reserved for people who actually know the experiment (or at least worked in a group that features at least one person who knows the experiment).
but if you want to work on LHC stuff, but you have no credentials whatsoever, you still can do it. there's OpenData, so all the shills about "muh CERN conspiracy" can eat a dick
