The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) is a new complex accelerator providing high-energy, high-intensity primary and secondary beams of antiprotons and ions to enable forefront research into the structure and dynamics of matter under extreme conditions. In close cooperation with astronomers, who use telescopes to view the Universe at a distance, the scientists at FAIR will directly create and examine cosmic matter in the laboratory, thereby providing new insights into the evolution of the Universe and the nucleosynthesis in stars and star explosions. In addition to the fundamental science research, FAIR is focusing on applications like radiobiological risk assessments for manned space missions, material sciences, plasma physics studies, and radiotherapy research.

The FAIR was established as a Company with Limited Liability under German law (GmbH) in 2010, when ten countries – the shareholders of the FAIR GmbH – signed the international agreement for the construction of the FAIR facility in Darmstadt. In total over 50 countries are involved in the FAIR science program by contributing to the construction and to the exploitation of the FAIR detectors. The FAIR experiments are organized in four large collaborations: APPA, CBM, NUSTAR and PANDA encompassing more than 2,500 scientists in total. FAIR is expected to deliver first beams for science experiments in 2025. Partial operation – FAIR Phase 0 science programme – has started in 2018 with the upgraded GSI accelerators, which will serve as injector chain for FAIR, and the new FAIR storage ring CRYRING.