On August 31st, 2020, PIER organized an online information event titled “The Bahrenfeld research campus in the context of the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld (SCHB)”. Its aim was to inform DESY and Universität Hamburg (UHH) scientists about the status quo of planning regarding campus development and to offer them the opportunity to ask questions and voice possible concerns.

At the beginning of the event, Christian Harringa, Administrative Director at DESY, Dr. Martin Hecht, Head of Administration at UHH, and Dr. Rolf Greve, Head of Department at the Hamburg Ministry for Science, Research, Equality and Districts (Behörde für Wissenschaft, Forschung, Gleichstellung und Bezirke (BWFGB)), greeted the audience and placed the campus development in the larger strategic planning context of their respective institutions. All three stressed the tremendous importance of the further development of the Bahrenfeld research campus for the Hamburg research landscape and the City of Hamburg as a whole. They welcomed the opportunity to engage in an in-depth discussion of relevant issues and questions with the concerned scientists.

Following these introductory remarks, Tobias Piekatz and Jan de Wolff, the DESY and UHH project coordinators responsible for campus development, gave an overview of the status quo of planning. In their presentation, they outlined the urban planning process with regard to the campus and SCHB, addressed the topic of mobility and transport and depicted the individual development steps and construction projects for UHH and DESY respectively.

Addressing the participants during a short statement after the presentation, Prof. Dr. Heinrich Graener, Dean of the UHH MIN faculty, pointed out that the SCHB development offers the unique opportunity to create a comprehensive campus where research, teaching and learning requirements can be conceptually brought together. In addition, the centralization of the various physics, chemistry and biology institutes that are currently scattered all over the city at one single research campus will provide huge potential for new synergies and will further promote interdisciplinary research initiatives.

In the second part of the event, participants had the opportunity to ask questions. Topics were, among others, the planned spatial capacities of the Departments of Chemistry and Biology, the connection of the campus via public transport and, linked to this issue, possible negative consequences due to vibrations that may be caused by construction works on new subway and rapid transit lines near campus. Participants also asked about the possibility to integrate future research buildings into the planning and pointed out that PR and marketing activities should be adopted to raise acceptance of the SCHB developments among the general public in Hamburg but also to make researchers and potential students outside of Hamburg aware of the excellent research and studying opportunities in Bahrenfeld.

Text: PIER, Marion Stange