From new imaging methods to new data formats and analyses and from screening of active agents to biomaterials: The potential that synchrotron radiation also holds for applied research is enormous. Fraunhofer, DESY, Hereon and EMBL have agreed on a strategic partnership to utilize this even more effectively in the future. The aim is to establish structured collaboration between the four research institutions in the near future. Particular emphasis will be placed on the use of the analytical infrastructure at the DESY campus in Hamburg, for instance the X-ray radiation source PETRA III but also the free electron lasers.

 

Cornerstone for greater efficiency and competitiveness

Katharina Fegebank, Hamburg’s Science Senator said: “When ideas come together from four different partners, innovation evolves. The close collaboration between the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, DESY, Hereon and EMBL in Hamburg is exactly the right recipe for new impulses in basic as well as applied research. In the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld, the right innovation ecosystem is available to promote the future potential of this cooperation. This expertise in our city stands for new competitiveness in Hamburg as a location for innovation. I congratulate all partners on this promising start!"

Prof. Axel Müller-Groeling, executive vice president for Research Infrastructures and Digital Transformation at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, explained: “By signing the memorandum of understanding, we are paving the way for an important contribution to greater efficiency and competitiveness of the German research landscape. In times of economic and social challenges, it is essential to pool expertise, infrastructure and knowledge across the boundaries of individual research institutions and to translate this into innovations in a planned and targeted manner. In doing so, not only will we be able to appeal to new customer groups in the future; we will also be able to address the pressing industry issues even more efficiently, shorten innovation cycles and boost our success.”

Dr. Arik Willner, chief technology officer at DESY, described the collaboration as follows: “The step we have taken in entering this collaboration with an impressive number of Fraunhofer institutes as well as our partners Hereon and EMBL shows how relevant DESY’s analytical capabilities are, not only for basic research but also for industrial issues, making it highly relevant in terms of innovation.”

Prof. Matthias Rehahn, scientific director of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, explained: “For many years now, Hereon has been successfully operating instruments for materials scienceinvestigations at two of Europe’s most powerful synchrotron radiation and neutron sources (PETRA III and FRM II) under the GEMS user platform and making them available to users from both academia and industry. By working more closely with the Fraunhofer community, we will be pooling Hereon’s expertise in the use of these systems with the experience that the Fraunhofer institutes have in industrial research.”

Prof. Matthias Wilmanns, head of EMBL Hamburg, said: “We are very excited about the opportunity that this partnership will provide for us to expand our beamline services for industrial applications and the field of life sciences. We believe that the goals of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Hereon, DESY and EMBL are strongly aligned. Working closely with these research institutions will open new possibilities for us to implement the EMBL program ‘Molecules to Ecosystems,’ which involves researching the molecular basis of life in the context of changing environments. Our aim is to transform our understanding of life on earth and to provide information on potential solutions for some of society’s biggest challenges, such as irreversible loss of biodiversity, antimicrobial resistance, pollution, climate change, food security and emergent pathogens.”

The collaboration between the four partners is designed to address key issues relating to both basic and applied research with the aim of boosting the technological performance and competitiveness of research and industry. For example, the collaboration that Fraunhofer has agreed with DESY, Hereon and EMBL will allow bespoke access to X-ray-based analytics so that it can address issues of current industrial relevance with the highest level of informative value. DESY and its campus partners will, in turn, expand their analysis portfolio through in-house and joint projects and will utilize Fraunhofer’s extensive preparation and data evaluation portfolio. In addition, Fraunhofer will provide application-oriented issues that will form the basis for collaborative marketing of analytical methods and portfolios to the industrial sector.

Initially, a total of 25 Fraunhofer institutes will be collaborating with experts from DESY, Hereon and EMBL.