European X-ray Free-Electron Laser joins EIROforum

New partner strengthens the EIROforum collaboration and the European Research Area.

8 November 2010

At the autumn 2010 Council Meeting of the EIROforum, a partnership of seven European Research Organisations — including ESO — with large research infrastructures, the Directors General unanimously accepted the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL), based in Hamburg, to become its eighth member.

The European XFEL is an international research facility that will use ultra-short X-ray flashes to map the atomic details of viruses, decipher the molecular composition of cells, take three-dimensional images of the nano-world, film chemical reactions and study processes such as those occurring deep inside planets. XFEL is currently under construction, with commissioning being planned for 2014.