The project "Heavy Exotic Nuclei for Nuclear Astrophysics (HENNA)" adresses the open question of the formation and origin of chemical elements heavier than iron. The rapid neutron capture process, the r process, produces around half of the heavy-element abundances beyond iron. It proceeds through exotic neutron-rich nuclei and is responsible for the production of heaviest elements in nature. The kilonova observed following the GW170817 binary neutron star merger gave direct evidence that the r process takes place at least in such binary mergers. The observation of GW170817 opened a new multimessenger era in astronomy and has triggered tremendeous amount of research. In order to interpret GW170817 and forthcoming observations, accurate nuclear data are needed to be included in the r-process calculations that predict the final abundances of nuclei produced in the process. Nuclear data are also required to model the kilonova lightcurve as it is powered by the radioactive decay of neutron-rich r-process nuclei.
