Universität Hamburg (UHH)
Counting more than 40.000 students – among them almost 5.000 international students from more than 130 countries – Universität Hamburg is the largest research and educational institution in Northern Germany and the third largest university in Germany. The diversity of a full-scale university is reflected in approximately 170 courses of studies. More than 4.100 scientists, among them almost 700 professors, are doing research and teach at eight different schools: Law; Economics and Social Sciences; Medicine; Education; Humanities; Mathematics, Informatics (Computer Science) and Natural Sciences; Psychology and Human Movement; Business.
The research profile of Universität Hamburg is characterized by excellent individual projects and interdisciplinary main research areas. Within the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State governments the main research areas in Earth Science as well as Photon and Nano Science each developed into a cluster of excellence: „Integrated Climate System Analysis Prediction“ (CliSAP, 2007) and „The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging“ (CUI, 2012). Further successful research areas are p.ex.: „Neurosciences“, „Manuscript Cultures“, „Law and Economics“, „Heterogeneity and Education“, „Infection Research“, „Health Management“, and „Multilingual Linguistics“.
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
DESY is one of the world’s leading accelerator centres and part of the Helmholtz Association. DESY develops, builds and uses large-scale accelerators, to analyze the structure of matter. DESY’s broad international research is focused on the following three areas: Developing, building and using accelerators, Photon Science, as well as Particles and Astroparticle Physics. For many years DESY and Universität Hamburg have been cooperating closely. To broaden this cooperation, both institutions signed a strategic partnership – PIER, the „Partnership for Innovation, Education and Research“.
Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD)
The Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter started in 2014, emerging from the Max Planck Department for Structural Dynamics at Universität Hamburg, which was founded in 2008 already. Leading scientists are doing research in the areas of condensed matter and atomic dynamics.
European XFEL GmbH (XFEL)
On 1 September 2017 the European XFEL was officially inaugurated. The 3.4 kilometre-long facility runs from the DESY campus in Hamburg to the town of Schenefeld in Schleswig-Holstein. The European XFEL will generate ultrashort X-ray flashes—27 000 times per second and with a brilliance that is a billion times higher than that of the best conventional X-ray radiation sources. Scientists will be able to map the atomic details of viruses and cells, take three-dimensional images of the nanoworld, film chemical reactions, and study the processes in the interior of planets. In order to construct and operate the facility, the European XFEL GmbH was founded in 2009, a non-profit research company with international shareholders.
European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory is a non-profit organization and a basic research institute funded by public research monies from 20 member states and one associate member. Research at EMBL is conducted by approximately 85 independent groups covering the spectrum of molecular biology. EMBL operates from five sites, among them the laboratory on the DESY site in Hamburg.