"Optical technologies make our everyday digital lives possible. With the OPTICUM, the federal government, state and university are investing in a forward-looking, modern research building in which the design, manufacture and application of precision optics will be redefined. We are thus expanding the appeal and relevance of our research far beyond the borders of the state and strengthening basic research and the transfer to industry in equal measure," says Falko Mohrs, Lower Saxony's Minister for Science and Culture. "Collaboration across disciplinary boundaries and close links with the PhoenixD Cluster of Excellence are already special features of optics research in Hanover. In future, they will be even more effective under the roof of the new research building."

Belit Onay, Lord Mayor of the City of Hanover, emphasises: "As a flagship project, the OPTICUM has immense appeal for Hanover as a science and business location. It also shows that we can successfully establish forward-looking research institutions in Hanover with Leibniz Universität and thus further raise the profile of Science Area 30 X as a centre of science. Optical technologies offer great solution potential for the challenges of the present and the future. Hannover is therefore ideally positioned for the future!"

"LUH already demonstrates the importance of optical technologies with its own research focus and its own research school, which is comparable to a faculty. It is logical and I am very pleased that this future-oriented topic is now also being underpinned by a new research building and is receiving scientific policy recognition and support," says Prof. Dr Volker Epping, President of LUH.

Prof. Dr Uwe Morgner, Director of the Institute of Quantum Optics and spokesperson for the PhoenixD Cluster of Excellence, explains: "On the new optics campus with the OPTICUM, the Laser Zentrum Hannover and the many small and large company settlements, we are creating first-class research conditions, maximum synergy and short distances. In the increasingly tough competition for students and the world's best scientists, this makes us one of the most important photonics centres in Europe."

The building, which costs around 82 million euros, is being constructed in close collaboration with the general planner HENN Architekten Berlin; completion is planned for 2026. The costs will be borne proportionately by the federal government (a good 25 million euros) and the state of Lower Saxony. The Leibniz Research School for Optics & Photonics (LSO), which was founded in spring 2020, will manage the OPTICUM. It is closely linked to the PhoenixD Cluster of Excellence. The four-storey building will have laboratories, offices and test halls. Marcus Fissan from HENN Architekten explains: "The rooms and open spaces that are so essential for research, exchange and communication - the basis for innovation - are now being created on 4,000 square metres. Innovation that is of enormous importance to us all."

Around 120 researchers from the fields of physics, electrical engineering and computer science, mechanical engineering, chemistry and mathematics will work together on precision optics under one roof. Areas of application include 3D imaging in medicine, applications of optical glass fibres, for example in minimally invasive endoscopes, optical sensors in environmental analysis, laser production of high-precision components, innovative skin cancer scanners with laser technology and pesticide-free weed control in agriculture.

Would you like to know more about our research building? Then please click here.

This film provides a vivid overview of the activities of LUH's research focus on optical technologies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlnMVQHjwz8

For further information, please contact Mechtild Freiin v. Münchhausen, Head of the Communications and Marketing Department and Press Officer at Leibniz Universität Hannover, on 0511 762-5342 or by e-mail at kommunikation(at)uni-hannover.de .

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