Decay spectroscopy is a powerful tool to study the low lying nuclear structure of heavy and superheavy nuclei (SHN). Single particle levels and other structure features like K isomerism, being important in the fermium-nobelium region as well as for the spherical shell stabilized SHN, can be investigated. The new separator-spectrometer combination S3, presently under construction at the new SPIRAL2 facility of GANIL, Caen, France, together with the high intensity beams of SPIRAL2’s superconducting linear accelerator (SC LINAC), will offer exciting perspectives for a wide spectrum of nuclear and atomic physics topics. The installation is designed to employ nuclear physics methods like decay spectroscopy after separation or atomic physics methods like laser spectroscopy and mass measurements. The nuclear physics studies will include particle and photon correlation studies, attacking the open questions in the field, which have been revealed in earlier studies at facilities like e.g. GSI in Darmstadt, Germany, with the velocity filter SHIP and the gas-filled separator TASCA, the cyclotron accelerator laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, with RITU and its numerous auxiliary detection set-ups, and FLNR/JINR in Dubna with the DGFRS and VASSILISSA/SHELS separators.