It’s official: with an inaugural ceremony on 26 February on the DESY Campus in Hamburg, the DESY-initiated Centre for Molecular Water Science (CMWS) Consortium has formed. The CMWS is a Europe-wide research network in the field of molecular water research, crossing subjects, disciplines, and methods. Forty-seven founding members from twelve countries – including fourteen German universities and eight Helmholtz Centres – have signed the CMWS Declaration. As strategically important partners, they complement the pan-European excellence network for molecular water science with the unique analytical possibilities on the DESY campus in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld.

Water is essential for life on Earth. It influences the climate, environment, energy, and health. It is essential for technological applications and future developments – as long as we can understand and make use of its special molecular properties. As the world’s only platform for water science, the basic research at CMWS represents a decisive knowledge base and provides coordinated access to relevant research infrastructures as well as their further development. To this extent, DESY’s analytical research facilities – such as PETRA III, FLASH, as well as the European XFEL – play a central role. With DESY’s planned X-ray source PETRA IV, it will be possible to investigate water in heretofore impossible spatial and temporal resolution.

“At the CMWS, experts from different disciplines work closely together to investigate the special characteristics of water. Through that knowledge insights will be possible into water-driven technologies that are more sustainable and that can contribute to reaching environmental, energy, health, and climate goals,” says Britta Redlich, DESY director for photon science. “CMWS is a sterling application for PETRA IV, the ultimate 4D X-ray microscope for physical, chemical, and biological processes. With its outstanding coherence, PETRA IV will offer unique opportunities to investigate and understand water and its interactions at the molecular level.”

At their inaugural meeting on 26 February in Hamburg, the representatives of the 47 founding members selected the chair and deputy of the CMWS General Assembly: respectively, Britta Redlich, DESY Director of Photon Science, and Eric Breynaert, lead scientist and manager of NMRCoRe, the NMR/X-ray platform for Convergence Research, at KU Leuven in Belgium. In addition, the CMWS General Assembly named two speakers for the Consortium: Melanie Schnell, DESY researcher and professor at the University of Kiel, and Patrick Huber, DESY researcher and professor at TU Hamburg.

With the new centre, DESY builds on its role as an international research location and underlines the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation for the science of tomorrow. A central part of the scientific activities at the CMWS will take place in a new research building on the Hamburg Campus. The Consortium has applied for funding from the strategic investment programme of the Helmholtz Association.

Helmholtz President Otmar Wiestler congratulated the CMWS on its inauguration in a video address. “Water is the foundation of life and a vital element in addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our time. CMWS is well aligned to the Helmholtz Mission: addressing major challenges of our time through interdisciplinary, long term cutting-edge research in order to contribute to solutions.”

“Water is life and – whether climate, environment, energy, industry, or health – for sustainable solutions to the biggest questions, we need a deeper understanding of matter,” says Hamburg’s science and research senator Katharina Fegebank. She expressed excitement that with the inauguration of the CMWS research network, a new knowledge base for sustainable technology of tomorrow could stream directly from the heart of the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld. “With DESY, the University of Hamburg, and the Hamburg University of Technology and their proposed excellence cluster ‘BlueMat: Water-Driven Materials’, three important beacons of Hamburg science with many international partners come together, further strengthening the European excellence network,” says Fegebank. “So goes the future: from Hamburg, for Hamburg, and far beyond Hamburg. I wish you an insightful start!”