The German scientific community engaged in gravitational wave astronomy welcomes the statements in the coalition agreement saying “Wir beteiligen uns am Wettbewerb um einen Gravitationswellendetektor”1and “Wir befürworten die Errichtung des Einstein-Teleskops in Deutschland als europäisches Leuchtturmprojekt“2 as an important and timely step forward. We are pleased that this commitment acknowledges the strategic importance of ET for the future of fundamental science and technology development in Germany and Europe’s global leadership in this field. Germany is exceptionally well-positioned to take on a leading role in ET: With the coalition agreement now setting a clear direction, the German ET community hopes that the federal government will actively engage in shaping the project…

Methods and technologies developed for fundamental research can yield unexpected but highly beneficial outcomes for society and the economy. The German ET Community now formed an Innovation Scout Initiative that will help to identify and transfer technologies developed for ET from the Community to industry. The kick-off with the first Innovation Scouts was held in Aachen, at the invitation of RWTH.During the very productive meeting, participants discussed successful examples of technology transfer between academia and industry, highlighting the mutual benefits of such collaborations. Other key topics included intellectual property and patent law, with a focus on how best to protect and manage innovations. The meeting marked an important step towards ensuring…

The ETMOST meetings are online meetings, aimed at non-specialists sharing information on science and technology activities in the EMR region. With updates on astrophysics, geology, engineering, Gravitational Wave Science etc. The online series will cover all relevant aspects for people involved in ET activities in the EMR region. The meetings are being held once a month, on the third Wednesday afternoon 16:00 – 17:00 CET (sharp).Next meeting: Wednesday May 21st, 16:00, Tjonnie Li (KU Leuven) on Comparing the Triangle and 2L geometries. Details are available at https://indico.nikhef.nl/event/6353/ Contact: Achim Stahl (stahl(at)physik.rwth-aachen.de) & Stan Bentvelsen (stanb(at)nikhef.nl)

Award for experimental physicist from Hannover The Senate of RWTH Aachen University awarded Karsten Danzmann the academic degree of “Doktor der Naturwissenschaften honoris causa”. Danzmann is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) and director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz University Hannover. The honorary doctorate ceremony took place in Aachen on 9 May 2025. Karsten Danzmann receives the award for his outstanding contribution to the development of the technologies that led to the discovery of gravitational waves and that will significantly improve further research into them, as well as for his support of the Einstein Telescope project. “I am absolutely excited about…

Within the green energy deal of the German Federal Government, the installation of new and re-powering of existing wind turbines is seen as a high priority to reach the goal of 2% aerial coverage by 2032. This development is visible across the country, but also in the seismic data of the nationwide and federal states seismometer networks. Characteristic frequencies originating at wind turbines affect the seismic records and may hide weaker signals from physically interesting sources within and outside of the Earth. To mitigate these effects, the seismological community initiated different projects to understand the induced seismic signals and relate them to mechanical processes at the wind turbines. While the…