About the Workshop

Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf e.V. (HZDR) and the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, together and in close cooperation with the Georgian partner universities (AUG, ISU, GTU, and TSU), are planning the 11th Georgian-German School and Workshop in Basic Science (GGSWBS), in the framework of the Georgian-German Science Bridge (GGSB). This time event is devoted to the topic "Science at Existing and Planned SMART|Labs in Georgia". The meeting is planned to be held in Tbilisi (AUG, ISU, TSU), Georgia, during September 7 - 12, 2026 .

The structure of the meeting will be to have a distributed cooperation workshop accompanied in parallel with the block lectures at different univeristies (topics-wise) in Tbilisi, with the common opening (closing) session at one host university (general plenary talks).

Background: The workshop will bring together colleagues and worldwide experts from the accelerator groups, medical physicists and physicians, life science and technology area from various international partners to summarize achievements in the field and to initiate discussions on further scientific and technological cooperation between the partners. In addition, we also plan to have dedicated lecturing courses for Bachelor, Magister and PhD students in a wide range of Natural and Engineering Sciences, as well as brainstorming on scientific (ongoing and future) projects and educational (student exchange) programs.

The Georgian-German Science Bridge (GGSB) comprises 3 pillars: (i) Education: Educational programs for Georgian students are pursued in form of various internship programs at German partner institutions and block-lectures in Georgia; (ii) Research: Georgian students together with their supervisors are actively involved in the diverse common research for their Master and PhD projects, organized in Georgia via called SMART|Labs (SMART stands for Science, Medicine, Applied Research and Technology); (iii) Knowledge transfer: Reintegrating young, well trained Georgian scientists into the Georgian university structures, i.p.into SMART|Labs.

All partners attach great importance to this possibility: three such SMART|Lab's were established in the fields of Particle Physics (SMART|EDM_Lab), Atmospheric Chemistry & Simulations (SMART|AtmoSim_Lab) at TSU, and in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SMART|Digital_Development_Lab) at AUG, the latter funded by the Volswagen foundation; Jülich has provided part of the scientific equipment. Further SMART|Labs are planned in the areas of the development and optimization of synthesis of a new biomarkers and other medical applications in collaboration between the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Nuclear Chemistry (INM-5) of FZJ, the depratment of Target Chemistry and Radiopharmacy (HZDR), and TSU chemisty group. Extensive discussions are ongoing between the Institute of Bio- and Geoscience, Plant Science (IBG-2) and AUG biology group to have a common project on the topic Agrophotovoltaics as a dual land-use strategy for the sustainable production of ,e.g., a long-cane raspberry.