  The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt, Germany,
provides unique possibilities for a new generation of hadron-, nuclear- and
atomic physics experiments. The future antiProton ANnihilations at DArmstadt
(PANDA or $\overline{\rm P}$ANDA) experiment at FAIR will offer a broad physics
programme, covering different aspects of the strong interaction. Understanding
the latter in the non-perturbative regime remains one of the greatest
challenges in contemporary physics. The antiproton-nucleon interaction studied
with PANDA provides crucial tests in this area. Furthermore, the
high-intensity, low-energy domain of PANDA allows for searches for physics
beyond the Standard Model, e.g. through high precision symmetry tests. This
paper takes into account a staged approach for the detector setup and for the
delivered luminosity from the accelerator. The available detector setup at the
time of the delivery of the first antiproton beams in the HESR storage ring is
referred to as the \textit{Phase One} setup. The physics programme that is
achievable during Phase One is outlined in this paper.
