FLASHForward - A Future-Oriented Wakefield-Accelerator Research and Development Facility at FLASH

The FLASHForward project at DESY, Germany, is an innovative plasma-wakefield acceleration (PWFA) experiment, aiming to accelerate electron beams to GeV energies over a few centimetres of ionised gas. Stable and high-quality electron beams from the SCRF FLASH linear accelerator will act as a driver. The experimental configuration will allow for investigation into both internal and external witness-beam injection techniques e.g. density-downramp and double bunch injection. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are being used to assess the efficacy of these techniques, providing a range of experimental properties for the accelerated bunches. In order to confirm the predictions of PIC codes a wide range of diagnostic tools is required. Accompanying the more traditional PWFA techniques - such as electron spectrometry, projected emittance reconstruction, and X-ray diagnostics - the FLASHForward post-plasma beam line will include ~fs longitudinal phase space and transverse slice emittance measurements of both the drive- and witness-beams. The operation parameters of FLASHForward, as well as the physics case and current experimental status, will be reviewed. Concepts of the main components currently under design and implementation - the target area, plasma cell, post-plasma beam transport, and diagnostics - will be described