Transfer and innovation

Creating knowledge - accelerating innovation

Materials with special properties, new methods of energy storage, resource-saving agriculture or new, customised medicines - PETRA IV is the analytical tool that can facilitate the development of such products and methods. This enables companies to optimise processes, bring innovations to market faster and improve existing products.

Science Briefing PETRA IV.

Summary of current developments and relevant information. May 2024 edition.

Creating knowledge – accelerating innovations

Materials with special properties, new methods of energy storage, resource-saving agriculture or new, tailor-made medicines – PETRA IV will be the analytical tool that can enable the developments of such products and methods. This will allow companies to optimise processes, bring innovations to market faster and improve existing products.

PETRA IV will accelerate industrial innovation cycles.

Unique X-ray analytics with outstanding service

DESY will provide optimised access to beamlines for industrial customers. Already today, corresponding concepts are being advanced at the PETRA III X-ray light source. The goal is to provide precisely tailored access to the measuring areas and the new analysis tools at PETRA IV. Through DESY’s Innovation and Technology Transfer department, industrial customers will receive help in booking and planning beamtime, feasibility studies and supporting services – from experiment preparation to data analysis.

Creating value with PETRA IV

An impact study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI predicts: The PETRA IV research facility can triple the added value in the first ten years from 2.54 billion euros to up to 7.35 billion euros. If transformative effects (such as data generation) are also taken into account, it is even possible to increase the initial investment tenfold!

Recognising and exploiting transfer potentials

The new PETRA IV synchrotron radiation source will push the current measurement limits of research with X-rays. The large-scale research facility will exploit the potential of the latest technologies and components. The development of new, extremely low-vibration magnet supports is one example, as are intelligent detectors that process the amount of data and interpret it with the help of algorithms. These processes are accompanied by the Innovation & Technology Transfer department at DESY from the very beginning in order to make relevant developments with transfer and exploitation potential useable for society and industry.

PETRA IV as an anchor for the innovation ecosystem

As a world-class facility and the centrepiece of the future Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld, PETRA IV will strengthen Germany’s position as a science location in international competition in the long term. To this end, DESY is already creating an ecosystem for innovations on the Hamburg research campus. This includes networking with other scientific organisations and research institutes on and off campus, as well as with the business community and local, regional and national politics and administration.

• Support for start-ups and spin-offs through the DESY Start-up Office
• Infrastructure for innovative cooperation projects with industry. Space for high-tech companies, crucial infrastructure for innovative companies through the Start-up Labs Bahrenfeld and the DESY Innovation Factory.
• Networks and cooperation with other partners in the region, cooperation with other innovation drivers on site, such as the Health Innovation Port of PHILIPS, the Artificial Intelligence Center Hamburg ARIC or networks such as 3D Druck Nord.

On its campus in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld, DESY combines outstanding expertise and versatile applications of accelerator-based X-ray light sources. This makes DESY an internationally outstanding location for structural research.