Working Together

As a proven R&D partner and experienced contractor, the Fraunhofer ISC offers a number of attractive cooperation models to industry and research organizations:

Innovation Partner for a Climate-Neutral Industry

EU-approved Carbon Contracts for Difference (“Klimaschutzverträge”), backed by €5 billion in funding, are creating investment opportunities for energy-intensive industries to adopt climate-neutral production processes. At Fraunhofer ISC, we support companies and partners in:

• Technology assessment and decarbonization: Testing alternative energy carriers (H₂, ammonia, electrification, plasma), optimizing high-temperature processes and adapting key technologies (catalysis, CCS, CCU, circular economy).
• Piloting and scale-up: Studies for demonstration, validation and transfer of new processes to industrial scale.
• Digitalization and process modeling: Use of digital twins, process modeling and automation of downstream process steps to advance digital production.
• Materials and process analytics: Accompanying analytics and modeling to ensure product quality, as well as transfer and optimization of thermal processes.
• Techno-economic assessment: Process models, risk and scenario analyses, sustainability assessments and raw material demand planning.
• Interdisciplinary expertise: Combined know-how at the interface of chemistry, materials science and process engineering.
   

EU-Projects and international cooperation

• Wide branched international network
• Cross-sector expertise in applied materials science
• Multidisciplinary teams from e.g. biologists, chemists, engineers, IT specialists
• Core topics: bioeconomy, circular economy, green chemistry and material digitization
   

Bilateral cooperation and contract R&D

• Individual assignments
• Short to medium term contract R&D
• Direct knowledge transfer in close on-site cooperation
• Support and guidance during implementation in production processes

Joint industry projects

• Complementary partnership (e. g. user and supplier)
• Pooling of methods and competencies
• Safe commercialization owing to IP protection

Joint projects with public funding

• Consortium of industry and research partners
• Medium and long term R&D projects
• Partial public funding
• Pre-competitive application-oriented research of fundamental nature

Industrial cooperative research associations

• Finding solutions in a less competitive environment
• Longterm projects
• Shared research costs
  

The Fraunhofer ISC holds active memberships in a number of national and international research networks to promote the interdisciplinary exchange with university and other research institutions and the industry. The obvious benefit is to share competencies and to attract new partnerships.

As a materials development institute, the Fraunhofer ISC is a member of the Fraunhofer Materials Group. The Group‘s spokesman is Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Elsner, Director of the Fraunhofer ICT. Other members are the Fraunhofer Institutes EMI, IAP, IBP, IFAM, IKTS, IMWS, ISE, ISI, IWM, IWES, IZFP, LBF and WKI, and also permanent guest IIS, IGB and ITWM.

Under the roof of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, a Fraunhofer ISC employee is managing director and deputy spokesman of the Fraunhofer Nanotechnology Alliance. The Fraunhofer ISC is further involved in cooperations with the Fraunhofer Alliances “AdvanCer”, “Adaptronics”, “Batteries”, “Energy”, “Lightweight Construction”, “Numeric Simulation of Products and Processes”, “Polymer Surfaces – POLO” and “Photocatalysis”.

The Fraunhofer ISC is also active in external research networks, e. g. in the “Forschungsallianz Kulturerbe” and the “Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Research Center for Complex Material Systems” (RCCM) of the  Würzburg University.

On a national scale, the Fraunhofer ISC is engaged in a number of Bavarian innovation clusters, in a competence network for nanotechnology materials (NanoMat) and one for materials research and technology (Materials Valley e.V.) as well as in the German Phosphorous Platform DPP. On a European scale, the Fraunhofer ISC is a partner in the “European Multifunctional Materials Institute” (EMMI). By way of the Project Group IWKS, Fraunhofer ISC is also partnering the “German Resource Research Institute” (GERRI) and the European Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) “EIT - Raw Materials”.

Fraunhofer Nanotechnology Alliance

Dr. Karl-Heinz Haas
Managing Director and deputy spokesman of the Alliance (Fraunhofer ISC)
Phone:  +49 931 4100-500
E-Mail: karl-heinz.haas[at]isc.fraunhofer.de
Website: www.nano.fraunhofer.de

Research Alliance Cultural Heritage

Dr. Johanna Leissner
Scientific Representative for Fraunhofer IBP, IAP, ICT, IGB, IST, ISC and MOEZ in Brussels
Phone: 0032 2 506-4243
E-Mail: johanna.leissner[at]zv.fraunhofer.de

Dr. Stefan Brüggerhoff
Deutsches Bergbau-Museum DBM, Bochum
E-Mail: stefan.brueggerhoff[at]bergbaumuseum.de

Prof. Dr. Stefan Simon
Rathgen-Forschungslabor | Staatliche Museen zu Berlin | Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
E-Mail: s.simon[at]smb.spk-berlin.de

Fraunhofer Sustainability Network (Fraunhofer Office Brussels)

Dr. Johanna Leissner
Phone: 0032 2 506-4243
E-Mail: johanna.leissner[at]zv.fraunhofer.de

German Phosphorus Platform - DPP

Dr. Daniel Frank (Managing Director)
Phone: 069 34876068
E-Mail: info[at]deutsche-phosphor-plattform.de

Chemistry Cluster Bavaria GmbH

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang A. Herrmann and Dr. Günter von Au (Speaker)
Website: www.chemiecluster-bayern.de

Cluster Mechatronics & Automation

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gunther Reinhart and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Franke (Speaker)
E-Mail: gunther.reinhart[at]cluster-ma.de und franke[at]faps.uni-erlangen.de
Website: www.cluster-ma.de

Nanoinitiative Bayern GmbH – Cluster Nanotechnology

Prof. Dr. Alfred Forchel
E-Mail: info[at]nanoinitiative-bayern.de
Website: www.nanoinitiative-bayern.de

Cluster of Alliance Bayern Innovativ – Cluster New Materials

Dr. Nicole de Boer
E-Mail: cluster-neuewerkstoffe[at]bayern-innovativ.de
Website: www.bayern-innovativ.de/netzwerke-und-thinknet/uebersicht-material/cluster-neue-werkstoffe