Hamburg supports DESY’s large-scale project PETRA IV

Hamburg is supporting the technology development for DESY’s planned large-scale project PETRA IV with 2.85 million euros over the next two years. Funding is being provided for the detailed technical planning phase, the so-called Technical Design Report (TDR) of the unique facility, as a precondition for a decision on the inclusion of the project in the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures. PETRA IV is set to become the world’s best 3D X-ray microscope, providing images of microscopic processes in new materials and in future medical agents that are hundreds of times more accurate than previously possible. PETRA IV will thus be the scientific beacon project in the future Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld.

Hamburg’s Science Senator Katharina Fegebank explains: “Hamburg can be pleased and proud: PETRA IV will offer unique research opportunities worldwide and has the potential to become the scientific flagship of the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld. The Senate therefore supports the development of the state-of-the-art technologies for the accelerator facility, thus ensuring that Hamburg can continue to develop into a world-class science and research metropolis.”

Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors, emphasises: “With PETRA IV, DESY is creating a completely new tool in basic research and for innovations in the fields of new materials, health, environment and sustainable energy concepts. The funding for the important TDR phase will help us to develop the new technologies that are indispensable for this and thus to create a robust design for this revolutionary large-scale project.”

With a federal share of 90 percent, further important financial support is available to DESY from the institutional funding provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which is supplemented by a state share of ten percent.

Background

The Helmholtz research centre DESY, with sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen in Brandenburg, receives 90 percent of its funding from the federal government (BMBF) and ten percent from the Senate at its Hamburg site.

DESY is currently planning to improve its brilliant electron storage ring PETRA III even further and expand it into the ultimate 3D X-ray microscope PETRA IV. For this purpose, an accelerator with cutting-edge technology is to be built into the existing 2.3-kilometre-long PETRA ring tunnel.

If implemented, this large-scale project would not only create the world’s best synchrotron radiation source in the west of Hamburg, but – in conjunction with the interdisciplinary research facilities and innovation laboratories on the DESY campus and the future Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld – a globally unique beacon of research.

The Technical Design Report (TDR) for PETRA IV, which is due in mid-2023, is an important milestone for the implementation of the overall project. It contains the technical construction plans of the accelerator, the X-ray beamlines and the surrounding infrastructure. It also outlines the construction measures and their sequence, with reliable information on the expected project costs. The TDR will be the basis for the application for funding of the overall project.