FAIR, the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research will be an extension of the existing Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) near Darmstadt. It will be an international research institute for nuclear and hadron physics, with 25% of the construction cost to be provided from countries outside Germany. The physics program of FAIR covers a wide range of topics, such as high-energy antiproton beams for hadron physics in the charmonium range (PANDA), low-energy antiproton beams for fundamental symmetries and atomic physics studies (FLAIR), high-energy heavy ion collisions (CBM), radioactive ion beams for nuclear structure studies (NUSTAR) and atomic physics with highly charged ions (SPARC/FLAIR). FAIR will become the most important center for hadron physics in Europe. The Austrian Ministry for Science and Research has decided to sign the memorandum of understanding of FAIR in February 2007 and has shown willingness to significantly contribute to the construction and operation of the FAIR facility.

Even though the complete external contribution has not yet been secured, the project was formally started with a kick-off event in November 2007. This marked the start of phase A of the project which is based on the available funding of 940 M€. Phase B will be started as soon as the remaining 250 M€ will become available. In October 2008, the basic legal documents were finalized and are currently being translated into the language of several participating countries. The process is expected to end in summer 2009 and the formation of the FAIR company is foreseen soon after. The time schedule anticipates an end of construction earliest in 2015, and a start of the antiproton operation soon after. Regarding FAIR, the focus of the Stefan Meyer Institute lies in the physics program with antiprotons and the institute is involved in FLAIR, PANDA, and the Antiproton Ion Collider (AIC) which is part of NUSTAR.