The strategic change in the DESY main research topics brought about a multi-topic research centre. The research fields are defined by DESY’s strong participation at international large-scale facilities and its research and DESY is committed to secure user operation at its large-scale facilities to provide a broad interdisciplinary scientific spectrum. Moreover, there is a growing self-research, and the DESY administration and DESY infrastructure which increasingly meet new challenges in the development of the DESY campus in Hamburg and Zeuthen, offer various structures.

Moreover, research partners have established themselves on the DESY campus in Hamburg, like EMBL, MPG, UHH and HZG, with their own buildings or within interdisciplinary research structures with DESY. Additional research projects, like the European XFEL or CSSB, with its users closely cooperating with DESY and which are operated by or jointly operated with DESY.

DESY research is organised at the two institutes in Hamburg and Zeuthen. DESY in Zeuthen is in the course of developing into an internationally visible centre for astroparticle physics, thus contributing independently to the overall mission of the research centre.

These three aspects on the one hand show very clearly the great dynamics and innovative strength of DESY, which significantly contribute to the high scientific reputation and secure the future of the research centre.

On the other hand, this desired and very positive development of the research centre bears the danger of dispersing the research activities and – as a consequence – the insidious loss of the common mission and the DESY brand. This is why the Directorate wants to create incentives to promote the “One-Lab Strategy” of the research centre and to maintain the visibility of the DESY brand and to support innovative approaches.

The DESY aim must be the advancement of the scientific and organisational commonalities and the reinforcement of the employees’ sense of community and, particularly, the promotion of junior researchers. The potential of synergies and activities of strategic relevance which originate through the cooperation between the research fields and of both institutes is to be exploited as well.