fThe federal government had good news on Thursday for science in Germany and for the two regions affected by the lignite phase-out, Lusatia and Central Germany. It had been known for two years that a new large-scale research center was to be built in each of these areas to compensate for the abandonment of coal-fired power generation. Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) has now revealed which two projects out of the remaining six finalists won the race.
The German Center for Astrophysics will be located in Lusatia, while the Center for Chemical Resilience is to be built in the Central German Revier. Each of these centers will be funded by the federal government with 1.1 billion euros and by the states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt with 100 million euros each until 2038, when the last coal-fired power plant is to be taken off the grid.
“We are setting a milestone today,” said Stark-Watzinger. “People in the mining areas can rightly expect the federal government to support the structural change.” It’s about opening up new perspectives, and research is a key to that. “Something new should be created here before something old breaks down,” said Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU). That is the main difference to the structural change after 1989, when hundreds of thousands of jobs in the East German mining areas were lost practically overnight, which is still in the bones of the people who stayed in the regions despite everything. The research centers would fertilize the entire region, said Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU), who, like Kretschmer, thanked the federal government for its support.
Underground laboratory at a depth of 200 meters
The astrophysics center planned by the astrophysicist Günther Hasinger of the European Space Agency in Lusatia is intended to bundle and process huge streams of data from future large telescopes. In doing so, the current limits of technology are being exceeded, said Stark-Watzinger. For example, an underground laboratory is to be built at a depth of 200 meters in the Bautzen-Kamenz-Hoyerswerda city triangle, because the granite block there guarantees “seismic calm”.
This is also suitable as a location for the Einstein Telescope, a planned underground European gravitational wave observatory that resembles a tunnel system measuring ten by ten by ten kilometers. In addition, new technologies such as semiconductor sensors and silicon optics for observatories are to be developed in early, close cooperation with industry, universities and non-university institutes. This will bring “top research to Lusatia,” said Kretschmer, who comes from Görlitz, where part of the future center is to be located.
The “Centre for Chemical Resilience” in the Central German Revier wants to establish “a sustainable circular economy for chemical products”. The project, initiated by the biochemist Peter Seeberger from Potsdam, is dedicated to researching renewable raw materials and sustainable production processes in the chemical industry in order to save energy, substitute raw materials and thus reduce dependence on supplier countries. The supply of Germany and Europe with chemicals, but also medicines, had become difficult, especially during the corona lockdowns. The center for this will be set up in Delitzsch, Saxony, in the triangle between Bitterfeld, Halle and Leipzig, while research is to be carried out in the traditional Central German chemical locations in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.
In each of the two centers around 1500 direct jobs are to be created in the hope that these will lead to successful projects, spin-offs and new companies. For science – at least in Germany – this competition was a unique procedure. A year ago, a commission from business and science selected six candidates from more than a hundred applications. They each received 500,000 euros from the federal government to develop their projects. The final decision was made last week by a commission made up of 63 international experts. The commission was “convinced that these two centers will sustainably strengthen Germany as a location for science” and will “open up new perspectives” for the regions affected by structural change.
