Key events in the operation of molecular, biological and nanoscale systems occur on time scales of femto- to picoseconds. A full understanding of such processes requires not only correspondingly high time resolutions, but also the ability to directly obtain structural information as the events take place. Therefore, the European XFEL has the ability to play a crucial role in shaping and greatly improving our understanding of the operation of complex systems.

The purpose of the workshop on temporally and spatially resolved dynamical phenomena is to bring together experts working on the dynamics of complex systems at the forefront of molecular, bio- and nanosciences in order to identify key problems that, if solved, would lead to dramatic breakthroughs. The main task of the experts participating in the workshop will be to freely speculate and provide ideas of what they believe will be the key issues in their fields in the next 10 years.

The workshop will be held from September 22 to September 23, 2011 at the DESY campus in Hamburg, Germany. There will be no contributed talks and ample discussion time will be arranged at the end of each day. Discussion among the participants will be key to the success of the workshop. The conclusions of the workshop will be collected in a report that will provide guidance in identifying the key problems to be tackled by XFEL experiments and in preparing beam-time proposals.