BERLinPro: the HZB Energy Recovery Linac Project

The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fuer Materialien und Energie (HZB) is currently building an Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) in Berlin Adlershof. Goal of this ''Berlin Energy Recovery Linac Project''(BERLinPro) is to demonstrate the feasibility of the ERL principle with very high currents while preserving the ultimate beam quality, present state of the art injectors are capable to generate. ERLs pledge to deliver high current beams of unrivaled quality, ideally suited for a very broad field of applications from electron coolers to synchrotron or Compton back scattering radiation sources. In this talk we give an introduction to BERLinPro and its project goals. The physical and technological challenges of a high current low emittance ERL will be pointed out and a review of the present project status will be given.