CERN is inviting high-school students aged 16 or older from anywhere in the world to submit a proposal to do an experiment with a particle beamline. Want to know more? Got a question about the competition? Then don’t miss the live Google+ hangout with the beamline for schools team on Thursday 4 December 2014 at 5pm CET. You can already start sending your questions now via Twitter using the #bl4s hashtag.

CERN scientists and last year’s winners will take part in the hangout, streamed live to CERN’s YouTube page. They’ll say more about this competition and what it’s like to carry out an experiment with particles from a Proton Synchrotron beamline. Last year, the student teams – Odysseus' Comrades from Varvakios Pilot School in Athens, Greece and Dominicuscollege from Dominicus College in Nijmegen in the Netherlands – were selected out of 292 proposals to spend 10 days conducting their proposed experiments at the fully equipped T9 beamline at CERN.

As well as this English-language hangout, the Beamline for Schools YouTube playlist contains videos and previous hangouts in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. You can also check the Beamline for Schools website for more information. Registration for the competition closes on 31 January 2015, all you need to do to register is send us the name of the school and of the participants as well as a tweet-of-intent stating why you think you should win this competition. You will still have until 31 March 2015 to prepare your full project, including a 1-minute video giving the highlights. Here is your chance!