Forschungszentrum Jülich groups its research activities into three interdisciplinary strategic research areas: energy, information, and bioeconomy.
Scientists in the research area of information investigate how information is processed in biological and technical systems. They are working on simulation and data sciences within high-performance computing (HPC) or supercomputing, brain research, and research into bioelectronics- and nanoelectronics-based information technologies with the aim of transferring findings on biological information processing to technical systems. In the field of supercomputing, Jülich develops and operates its own supercomputers (see section on research infrastructures), which can be used for simulation calculations. Brain research also draws on these facilities. Brain research at Jülich aims to shed light on the molecular and structural organization of the brain to better understand illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease. Research is conducted in cooperation with the neighbouring university hospitals in Bonn, Cologne, Aachen, and Düsseldorf.
Research into quantum technologies is associated with the research field of information. This includes work on quantum computers, with components, concepts, and prototypes being developed at Jülich. Forschungszentrum Jülich cooperated with Google in developing the Sycamore quantum computer, and it will be home to the first universal quantum computer developed in Europe as part of the OpenSuperQ project.
Jülich research is aimed towards an energy system based on renewable energy sources. This research field is primarily covered by the Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK). IEK has 14 subinstitutes that focus on various tasks in collaboration with other institutes. Its research priorities include photovoltaics, fuel cells, and hydrogen as an energy carrier, research into batteries and new methods of energy storage, as well as processes for increasing the efficiency of fossil energy. In the context of the feasibility of the energy transition, Forschungszentrum Jülich explores and models energy systems. With its materials research, the institute is also involved in developing nuclear fusion reactors (such as ITER and Wendelstein 7-X). In the field of producing energy through nuclear fission (atomic energy), FZJ now only conducts research into the disposal of nuclear waste. Two subinstitutes of IEK are involved in atmospheric and climate research, focusing on the interactions between human activities, air quality, and climate, as well as on improving climate and atmospheric models in cooperation with the Jülich Supercomputing Centre.
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FZJ, with 265 full-time positions (as of 2019), boasts the largest site for investigating hydrogen technologies within the Helmholtz Association. Research is conducted into the production, conversion, and storage (e.g. in liquid media, liquid organic hydrogen carriers) of hydrogen, as well as into the infrastructure of a hydrogen economy.
Sustainable bioeconomy
The bioeconomy is an economic system based on the sustainable use of biological resources including plants, animals, and microorganisms. It is argued that a bioeconomy will become necessary due to the finite nature of oil reserves, on which many industrial and everyday products are based, anthropogenic climate change, and the continued growth of the world population. In the area of sustainable bioeconomy, FZJ concentrates on the transition from an oil-based economy to a bioeconomy. This research is conducted in the field of biotechnology in an effort to use renewable raw materials to biotechnologically produce industrially or pharmaceutically relevant base materials. Plant research focuses on optimizing crop yield and the usability of plants as fuels. The third research area at FZJ focuses on chemical and physical processes in soil.
Structural change in the Rhineland lignite-mining region
The Rhineland lignite-mining region, where FZJ is located, is undergoing an important structural change due to the coal phase-out. The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia aims to transform the region into a European model region for energy supply and resource security. Through its research projects, FZJ will support the successful transformation of the Rhineland region. These projects include the cultivation of novel plants, sustainable agriculture, and the hydrogen economy, as well as collaborations between the field of information and industry, for example in the area of artificial intelligence or data analysis. The aim is to create a locational advantage for innovative enterprises.
Research infrastructures
Forschungszentrum Jülich operates numerous research infrastructures, which are available to internal and external users. FZJ coordinates and is involved in several research infrastructures in the ESFRI Roadmap, which identifies strategically important facilities and platforms in the EU. Examples include the neuroscientific digital platform EBRAINS, the EMPHASIS project for plant phenotyping, the coordination of the European supercomputer network PRACE, and the IAGOS cooperation for research into the Earth's atmosphere using instruments on commercial aircraft. The Ernst Ruska-Centre 2.0 for ultrahigh-resolution electron microscopy and the German contribution to the European Aerosols, Clouds and Trace gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS-D) have been part of Germany's National Roadmap since 2019. In this Roadmap, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) prioritizes infrastructure projects that are important in terms of strategy and research policy.
Helmholtz Nano Facility
The Helmholtz Nano Facility (HNF) is a facility with a large (1,100 m2) ISO 1–3 classified clean room. The HNF is a central technology platform for the production of nanostructures and circuits within the Helmholtz Association. Work at the HNF focuses on green microchips/computing, quantum computing, neuromorphic computing, bioelectronics, and microfluidics.
Ernst Ruska-Centre
The Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons (ER-C) was selected by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as a national research infrastructure for ultrahigh-resolution electron microscopy. The electron-optical instruments at ER-C can also be used by external scientists and enterprises. They make it possible to investigate structures at the atomic and molecular level. The PICO electron microscope can be used for this work as it is can correct the lens errors of spherical and chromatic aberration.
SAPHIR atmospheric simulation chamber
In the 20-metre-long SAPHIR chamber (Simulation of Atmospheric PHotochemistry In a large Reaction Chamber), the Institute of Energy and Climate Research – Troposphere (IEK-8) explores photochemical reactions in the Earth's atmosphere.
Jülich Plant Phenotyping Centre
The Jülich Plant Phenotyping Center (JPPC) is a leading international institution for the development and application of non-invasive techniques for quantifying the structure and function of plants. At JPPC, technology is developed and plant traits are analysed on a mechanistic level under high-throughput and field conditions.
Supercomputers
The Jülich Supercomputing Centre at Forschungszentrum Jülich operates supercomputers of the highest performance class and emerged from the first German high-performance computing centre (HLRZ), which was founded at Jülich in 1987. In 2003, a 1,000 m2 machine hall was built for the supercomputers next to the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. JSC joined forces with the High Performance Computing Centre Stuttgart (HLRS) and the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) in Garching near Munich to form the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS), which unites the three most powerful computing centres under one roof. In addition, JSC coordinates the development of the European supercomputer network PRACE. JSC is headed by physicist and computer scientist Thomas Lippert.
JURECA (2015)
The JURECA supercomputer replaced JUROPA in 2015 and was expanded to include a GPU-based booster module in 2017. This made JURECA the world's first supercomputer with a modular architecture to be put into productive operation. With a computer performance of 3.78 petaflop/s, the system ranked 29th in the TOP500 list of November 2017. Between autumn 2020 and the beginning of 2021, the JURECA cluster module was replaced by the JURECA-DC module, which is designed to process large volumes of data and increased the system's peak performance to 23.5 petaflop/s.
JUWELS (2018)
The JUWELS supercomputer (Jülich Wizard for European Leadership Science) was put into operation in 2018 and was expanded in 2020 to include a GPU-based booster module. The combined cluster and booster modules have a theoretical peak performance of 85 quadrillion floating point operations per second (85 petaflop/s), which made JUWELS the most powerful supercomputer in Europe and the 7th most powerful in the world when the booster debuted on the November 2020 TOP500 list. Furthermore, the JUWELS booster module was the most energy-efficient system of the ten most powerful computers in the world when it was introduced.
JUPITER (2024)
As part of the EuroHPC JU the Jülich Supercomputing Centre will host the JUPITER supercomputer (Joint Undertaking Pioneer for Innovative and Transformative Exascale Research), which is to be the first exascale supercomputer in Europe. The machine is being installed in 2024 and should eclipse the threshold of one quintillion ("1" followed by 18 zeros) calculations per second.
Medical imaging
The Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine (INM) develops and applies medical imaging techniques using MRI and PET for clinical applications and to investigate neurological, neuropsychological, and psychological issues. Equipment at INM includes a combined 3-tesla and 9.4-tesla MRI PET tomograph as well as a 7-tesla, 4-tesla, and 3-tesla MRI system.
Research with neutrons
Forschungszentrum Jülich is a national competence centre for neutron scattering. The Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS), which operates instruments at various neutron sources all over the world, was established in 2006 – a few months before the original neutron source (the Jülich research reactor FRJ-2) was decommissioned. Six of the most important instruments were moved from FRJ-2 to FRM II; new instruments were also assembled there. In addition, JCNS has branch offices at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble and at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) in Oak Ridge. JCNS also plans to operate instruments at the European Spallation Source (ESS), which is currently being constructed in Lund, Sweden, as well as at future high-brilliance accelerator-driven neutron sources. The instruments will be made available to a wide range of users, for example to conduct research into energy materials and active ingredients for medications or to analyse protein structures and magnetic materials.
EBRAINS
EBRAINS is a digital, European research infrastructure that was created as part of the EU-funded Human Brain Project (HBP). Forschungszentrum Jülich supports the infrastructure by providing computing capacities for simulations and big data analyses. The aim is to further brain research and to apply scientific findings in this field to innovations inspired by the brain in computing, medicine, and industry.
EMPHASIS
The European Infrastructure for Multi-Scale Plant Phenomics and Simulation for Food Security in a Changing Climate (EMPHASIS) is a pan-European, distributed infrastructure for plant phenotyping. The aim of this EU platform, which is coordinated by Forschungszentrum Jülich, is to analyse and quantify the external characteristics of plants (the "phenotype") such as the root architecture or the number of leaves. EMPHASIS integrates information systems with data acquisition using mathematical models and helps scientists to analyse plants for a sustainable European agriculture in different environments with the aim of enabling more efficient plant production in a changing climate. The EU has provided €4 million in funding for the creation of the platform.
Biomolecular NMR Centre
The Biomolecular NMR Centre is a cooperation between the Institute of Biological Information Processing – Structural Biochemistry at Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Institute of Physical Biology at HHU Düsseldorf. It operates various high-field NMR spectrometers for liquid- and solid-state NMR spectroscopy for research into biologically and medically relevant proteins in order to determine, for example, the three-dimensional structure with a high resolution. This technology is also used to investigate the structural basis for affinities and specificities of these macromolecules in protein-ligand interactions.
The Biomolecular NMR Centre has one 900 MHz NMR spectrometer for liquid-state NMR spectroscopy, one 800 MHz NMR spectrometer for liquid- and solid-state NMR spectroscopy, a 700 MHz device for liquid-state NMR, two 600 MHz devices for liquid-state NMR, and another 600 MHz NMR spectrometer for solid-state NMR spectroscopy. A novel 600 MHz DNP-enhanced solid-state NMR device was installed in 2014.
Membrane Centre
The Membrane Centre at Forschungszentrum Jülich (approx. 1550 m2) provides a research infrastructure for the development of membrane systems, covering the entire spectrum of services from the production of the materials needed and the characterization using analytical instruments right up to the testing of modules and components. A priority is the development of novel membrane systems for energy technology in order to separate greenhouse gases from exhaust gases and to provide a basis for novel fuel cells and solid-state batteries.
Other research projects
Forschungszentrum Jülich has a lattice steel mast (124 metres high) for meteorological measurements. It is equipped with platforms at 10 m, 20 m, 30 m, 50 m, 80 m, 100 m, and 120 m, on which measuring instruments are positioned. The measuring mast was erected in 1963/4 and is a triangular steel framework construction.
Former research activities
IBM p690 cluster "Jump" (2004)
The massively parallel supercomputer IBM p690 cluster Jump was put into operation at the beginning of 2004. With 1,312 Power4+ 2C 1.7 GHz processors (41 nodes, each with 32 processors) and an internal memory of 5 terabytes (128 gigabytes per node), the computer had a maximum performance of 5.6 teraflop/s. It was ranked 30th in the list of the world's most powerful computers at the time of its inauguration. The nodes were connected to each other by a high performance switch (HPS). Through a globally parallel data system, applications had access to more than 60 terabytes of storage space and an integrated tape drive with a capacity of one petabyte. The IBM p690 cluster Jump was run on the operating system AIX 5.1. In 2008, the system was temporarily replaced by IBM Power6 p6 575 until JuRoPA began operating.
Jülich BlueGene/L supercomputer (JUBL, 2006)
JUBL was unveiled in 2006 and is considered to be JUGENE's predecessor. It was decommissioned following JUGENE's successful installation in mid-2008.
Jülich BlueGene/P supercomputer (JUGENE, 2008)
On 22 February 2008, the massively parallel supercomputer JUGENE, which was based on IBM's BlueGene/P architecture, went into operation. At times, it was the fastest computer in Europe and the fastest civil computer in the world. In 2012, it was replaced by JUQUEEN.
HPC-FF and JuRoPA (2009)
On 26 May 2009, the two computers HPC-FF and JuRoPA went into operation. The two computers could be connected for specific tasks and together they achieved a performance of 274.8 teraflop/s with Linpack, which placed them tenth worldwide. The operating system was SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. This meant that three computers were effectively in operation in 2009. Both computers were decommissioned in June 2015 and replaced by JURECA.
HPC-FF – A computer built by Bull for fusion research with 1080 cluster nodes, each with two Xeon quad-core processors (Xeon X5570, 2.93 GHz).
JuRoPA was built by Sun with 4416 Xeon X5570 processors (2208 processor nodes).
JUQUEEN (2012)
The supercomputer known as JUQUEEN went into operation in 2012. It has a peak performance of 5.9 petaflop/s and was Europe's fastest supercomputer at the time of its inauguration.
Cooler synchrotron (COSY)
The COSY cooler synchrotron was a particle accelerator (synchrotron) and storage ring (circumference: 184 m) for accelerating protons and deuterons operated by the Nuclear Physics Institute (IKP) at FZJ, which was operated until October 2023.
COSY was characterized by beam cooling, which reduces the deviation of particles from their predetermined path (can also be understood as the thermal motion of particles) using electron or stochastic cooling. At COSY, there were a number of experimental facilities for studies in the field of hadron physics. Recently, research focused on investigating the electric dipole moment of protons, testing components and methods for the planned Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research, and on preparatory experiments constructing an accelerator-based neutron source. Previous core experiments such as the ANKE magnetic spectrometer, the TOF time-of-flight mass spectrometer, and the WASA universal detector, which was moved to COSY from the CELSIUS storage ring of The Svedberg Labors (TSL) in Uppsala, have been decommissioned and mostly dismantled. The synchrotron was used by scientists from German and international research institutions at internal and external target stations. It was one of the research facilities used for collaborative research funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Location and accessibility
Forschungszentrum Jülich is situated in the middle of the Stetternich Forest in Jülich (Düren district, North Rhine-Westphalia) and covers an area of 2.2 square kilometres. It is located about 4 km to the south-east of Jülich, approx. 30 km to the north-east of Aachen, and 45 km to the west of Cologne. Some of the facilities of Forschungszentrum Jülich are not located on campus but about 1 km west of campus on the premises of the former federal railways repair shop (BAW).
