Hadron physics is basic research and serves to extend our knowledge about the "quark-gluon" structure of nuclear constituents and their dynamics. The central experimental device is the COSY cooler synchrotron, in which protons are accelerated to energies of up to 2.5 billion electronvolts to initiate proton-nucleon and proton-nucleus reactions. The operation and further development of the COSY cooler synchrotron provide the global community of hadron researchers with unique opportunities of research which are also utilized by a large number of German universities.

The condensed matter project is concerned with the properties of solids and soft matter (polymers, colloids) derived from the microscopic basis of atomic interactions. Priority is given to the investigations of tailor-made functional materials and phenomena in the nanometre range. This concerns, in particular, the physics of clusters, interfaces, thin films and membranes. The findings obtained are also of significance for chemistry, biology and the materials sciences, which increasingly advance to the atomic level, but especially also for the devices for information technology penetrating into the nanorange.

Apart from preparative work on metallic, ceramic and polymeric materials, the operation and further development of the FRJ-2 neutron source are of particular significance in the experimental area, since neutrons are an excellent and indispensable probe for the structure and dynamics of matter on the atomic scale.

Neutron sources so far have been research reactors whose technically feasible limits are reached, however, concerning useful neutron fluxes. There is therefore a global consensus that the next generation of sources have to be pulsed spallation devices. In addition to the possibility of a 100-fold increase of the peak fluxes so far attainable, they are inherently safe - they do not require any fissionable material. Whereas spallation sources are already under construction in the USA and Japan, it is being planned in Europe to construct an even more powerful source - the "European Spallation Source (ESS)" - , in order to secure Europe's currently clearly leading role in neutron scattering for many further years. In the project concerning development work for ESS  (terminated Dec. 31 2003), important contributions were made in the target/moderator area and to accelerator and instrument development.