Lattice QCD with dynamical up, down and strange quarks

This project incorporates many new ingredients. Starting with the action which has been specifically tuned for the current effort, over the many algorithmic innovations to the newly formed group of researchers from all over Europe which are involved in these simulations. The project is currently underway, with the goal to generate lattices at three different values of the lattice spacing. The parameters are now tuned, the first ensembles have reached target statistics and the others under production. On these ensembles a large variety of physics projects will be carried out. The first targets being the determination of the strong coupling constant and the physics of charm quarks. The wide range of lattice spacings and quark masses and the availability of the lattices to the large group of reasearches within CLS will certainly lead to many interesting results in the next year, the ground for which are currently being laid during the current investigations. (orig.)