Charm detection at HERMES

Charm production in polarized lepton nucleon scattering is believed to be a clean probe of the nucleon spin contribution carried by gluons. An extensive search for charm signals has been carried out in the HERMES data of the years 1995 to 1997. Clean signals for both hidden and open charm could be extracted. A preliminary measurement of the $J/ψ$ cross section near threshold is presented. Recently major detector upgrades have been implemented that will significantly improve the physics potential of HERMES in the charm sector.