The PIER Day started with a welcome from the head of the PIER Executive Board Francesca Calegari (DESY/UHH). In her opening remarks, she outlined the role of PIER as facilitator for initiating and intensifying research collaboration between DESY and Universität Hamburg scientists by providing seed funding for joint research activities, organizing workshops on joint research perspectives and offering opportunities for informal exchange and networking.
 
In the first session, two highlights from the PIER Seed Projects funding program were presented to give participants an idea of the possible scope and impact of research activities funded by PIER. Christoph Heyl (DESY) presented outcomes of his project “Pulse-post compression in gas-filled multi-pass cells” (funding period: 2018-2020). Irene Fernandenz-Cuesta (UHH) and Sergio Diez-Cornell (DESY) gave insights into their ongoing project “A tunable light source and plasmonics for selective, on-chip lysing of bio-organisms” (funding period: 2021-2023).

The second session was reserved for the discussion of future joint DESY and Universität Hamburg (and in some cases further partners’) research perspectives in the fields of data science (Anton Barty, DESY), infection research (Kay Grünewald, UHH/LIV), materials research (Patrick Huber, DESY/TUHH), particle and astroparticle physics (Gregor Kasieczka, UHH), photon and accelerator science (Franz Kärtner, DESY/UHH), quantum technologies and quantum computing (Kerstin Borras, DESY/RWTH Aachen, and Klaus Sengstock, UHH) and water research (Michael Fröba, UHH). Most of these topics had been covered by dedicated PIER workshops organized in 2022 which sucessfully sparked exchange among DESY and UHH researchers. Further workshops are planned for 2023 to continue these fruitful discussions and initiate additional ones.

As a vivid example for truly interdisciplinary research collaboration, Konrad Hirschler (UHH) presented joint DESY and UHH research activities within the UHH Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts”. He showed that DESY scientists and research facilities play a pivotal role in the damage-free uncovering of yet unexplored writings on clay tablets and for analyzing the material properties of written artefacts. These research approaches allow pioneering research breakthroughs in the humanities.

The lunch break provided the opportunity for personal exchange and networking among the participants. In addition, a poster session offered the chance to meet PIs from recent and current PIER Seed Projects and learn more about their joint DESY-UHH/or UKE research activities.

The afternoon started with short inputs on PETRA IV (Harald Reichert, DESY) and the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld developments (Tobias Piekatz, DESY) as well as a short summary of the discussions on joint research perspectives in the morning session (Francesca Calegari, DESY/UHH). During the following panel discussion “Science in the Science City: Joint perspectives for strategic development in research of DESY and Universität Hamburg” which was moderated by the journalist Jan-Martin Wiarda, leading representatives of DESY, Universität Hamburg and the City of Hamburg (Petra Arck, UKE; Helmut Dosch, DESY; Rolf Greve, BWFGB; Hauke Heekeren, UHH; Norbert Ritter, UHH-MIN) discussed avenues and priorities for future joint activities on and around campus, all of them underlining the importance of Bahrenfeld as a future hotspot of science in Hamburg and far beyond.

PIER would like to thank all participants in the PIER Day for their efforts and dedicated work to turn this event into a successful day with lively exchange and fruitful discussions. Special thanks go to the PIs of the PIER Seed Projects presenting their projects in the morning session and during the poster session. We are looking very much forward to the PIER Day in 2023!

Photograph: Marta Mayer / DESY