Research alliances with Russia

The office located in the German-Russian House was officially opened today by Federal Research Minister Edelgard Bulmahn and the President of the Helmholtz Association, Professor Dr. Walter Kröll. Its goal, like that of the Helmholtz Offices in Brussels and Beijing, is to strategically initiate and expand research cooperation.

"The Helmholtz Association works on developing solutions to problems of global importance. This is why our strategy is to concentrate resources, within and beyond our organisation," said Professor Walter Kröll. Russia was, he stated, a country of great scientific potential with excellent scientists and engineers. "Russian research institutions have already been important strategic partners for us for many years. At present, scientists and researchers from the Russian Federation make up the largest group among the guests working at the Helmholtz Association," continued Kröll.

Federal Research Minister Bulmahn sees the intensified cooperation as bringing benefits for both countries: "The Helmholtz Association introduces substantial resources into the partnerships: the expertise and creativity of 24,000 staff working at the Helmholtz Centres, a unique range of large-scale scientific facilities and an outstanding research infrastructure. The research partners also profit from this."

The Helmholtz Office in Moscow has been set up to intensify ties between Russian and German partners and to develop new contacts. The office will provide important support in the creation of research projects and will provide assistance in overcoming difficult formalities and bureaucratic obstacles The two sides already reached a milestone at the official opening ceremony for the office when the Helmholtz Association and the Russian Academy of Sciences signed a cooperation agreement.

Successful German-Russian partnerships
Successful partnerships between Russian research facilities and Helmholtz Research Centres already exist in fields such as marine research, nuclear fusion, space travel or particle physics. For example, German-Russian cooperation at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg can look on a long tradition extending back to 1980. Around 120 engineers and technicians from Russia are currently working there on the Helmholtz Programme "Elementary Particle Physics", with around 110 additionally involved in photon research.

But the aim is also to open up and develop new fields of cooperation. For example, Russian scientists will make valuable contributions towards two future projects of the Helmholtz Association. The XFEL (X-Ray Free-Electron Laser) at DESY will provide the research community with a laser that produces x-rays of a previously unattained quality. The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt will make it possible to specifically produce antiprotons and exotic ions. "Both facilities open up fantastic research opportunities for us," said Kröll. "For example, XFEL will enable us to film extremely fast biological, chemical and physical processes for the first very time and so will help us gain a better insight into how these proceed. The research findings from the FAIR project will substantially deepen our understanding of nuclear matter."

Information and contact
Further details and information are available on the Helmholtz Association's Russian website at www.helmholtz.ru and in the English brochure "Helmholtz and Russia" published today. The brochure can also be accessed and downloaded from the Internet or, respectively, can be ordered direct from the Helmholtz Association.

The Helmholtz Office in Moscow is headed by Dr. Bertram Heinze. Dr. Heinze studied geosciences at Kiel, Bergen (Norway) and Freiberg. He gained his doctorate at the FU Berlin with work performed within the Collaborative Research Centre "Deformation Processes in the Andes", while his research was carried out at the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam and in Chile. Heinze has been a member of numerous expeditions to the Siberian Arctic since 1993.


With its 15 Research Centres and a budget of around 2.2 billion euros, the Helmholtz Association is the largest scientific research organisation in Germany. The 24,000 staff of the Helmholtz Association produce excellent scientific findings in six Research Fields: Energy, Earth and Environment, Health, Key Technologies, Structure of Matter, Transport and Space. The Helmholtz Association identifies and addresses the grand challenges facing society, science and industry, in particular by researching systems of great complexity.