01.06.2011

Cooperation agreement signed in Delhi with the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics

Indian scientists will become frequent users of PETRA III and FLASH

Earlier this week, Chancellor Angela Merkel travelled to India, accompanied by a German delegation. Part of the delegation were DESY directors Helmut Dosch and Christian Scherf. On Tuesday, in India’s capital Delhi, they signed a cooperation agreement between DESY and the Saha Instutite of Nuclear Physics (SINP, Kolkata), represented by its director Milan Sanyal. The agreement manifests the intention of the German and Indian partners to extend future cooperation between both countries in the field of large-scale research infrastructures.

Signing Ceremony (from left): DESY Director Helmut Dosch, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and SINP Director Milan Sanyal

DESY’s light sources PETRA III and FLASH offer unique research opportunities and a great potential for innovative experiments. Therefore, they are extremely attractive for the well-developed and highly qualified science community of India. Actually, India is planning to build an own synchrotron radiation source of the third generation for high-energy photons; thus, the country is very much interested in training young scientists at the DESY experimental facilities.

“DESY explicitly welcomes the plans of India‘s science community to intensify their activities at large-scale light sources and to introduce young scientists to these promising research fields,” said Helmut Dosch, chair of the DESY directorate. “It is to be expected that this long-term cooperation will bring about considerable synergies and mutual advantages.”

Already in 2009 the scientific adviser of the Indian government C.N.R. Rao signalled the intention to do nano and materials research at PETRA III, including participation at a future PETRA III beamline. The current agreement with SINP now provides the legal framework for a variety of individual projects and initiatives, represented and coordinated by SINP for India.

The first concrete activity is already arranged to a great extent: within the framework of a collaboration to use the high-energy synchrotron radiation, SINP will contribute 14 million Euros for the construction and operation of a beamline in one of the PETRA III extensions. The corresponding document will soon be signed. Furthermore, DESY and SINP are discussing whether there are possibilities for additional cooperation in the field of accelerators and instrumentation.