By bringing together expertise from frontier scientific research and educational researchin formal and informal science learning, along with user communities across Europe, theLA@CERN (Learning with ATLAS@CERN) consortium will design, develop, test,implement and disseminate an innovative pedagogical framework that will support thecreation of effective “dialogue” between scientific research and communities, at themoment that the new gigantic detector ATLAS is starting operation at CERN (August2008), to explore the fundamental building blocks and forces of nature, and to probedeeper into matter than ever before. The project proposes a reversal of scienceteaching pedagogy from mainly deductive to inquiry-based approach that provides themeans to increase interest in science.The proposed approach emphasizes curiosity and observations followed by problemsolving and experimentation in both real and virtual settings. A web based educationalenvironment will be developed to facilitate the proposed process. The LA@CERNeducational environment will provide access to near real-time data and interactiveanalysis tools, 3D and 2D animations of physical processes in a game-like approach,teacher-resources, student-centred materials, applications for educational projects andcollaborative activities.The project will pilot and demonstrate the LA@CERN approach in schools, universitiesand science centres in Greece, Finland, Sweden, Austria, UK and at CERN and througha systematic validation process it will try to develop a structured set of guidelines andrecommendations on how effective collaboration between researchers and theeducational sector (formal and informal) could create valuable and meaningful learningexperiences for all, fostering exploration, discovery, curiosity and collaboration.