Press Releases

Germany holds the EU Council Presidency until the end of December. In an ambitious program, Germany has set itself the goal of addressing the issues of climate change and the protection of cultural heritage, among others. However, there is still a lack of reliable data and scientific studies on how and, above all, which future extreme weather events will affect our cultural heritage in the various regions of Germany and what measures we can take to protect our cultural heritage. Over the next three years, researchers will investigate this for the first time for Germany in the BMBF-funded project "KERES". The research project is coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg together with the Fraunhofer EU Office in Brussels.

Faster charging, longer stability of performance not only for electric vehicles but also for smartphones and other battery powered products. What still sounds like science fiction today might be feasible in the future, not least thanks to innovations the recently started “Spartacus” research project wants to achieve. By utilizing advanced sensors and cell management systems, “Spartacus” aims to reduce charging times by up to 20 % without compromising the reliability and service life of batteries. The European Union is funding “Spartacus” as part of the Battery 2030+ research initiative.

Batteries will play a crucial role in the phase-out of fossil fuels, in particular in the transport sector. If the goal of reducing CO2 emissions in Germany by 55 percent by 2030 is to be achieved, future batteries must above all become more sustainable and also cheaper. That is a big challenge, because the development of new batteries takes a long time - longer than we can wait for the green transition. The EU project BIG-MAP (Battery Interface Genome - Materials Acceleration Platform), aims at accelerating the speed of battery development by changing the way of inventing, so that future sustainable and ultra-high-performance batteries can be developed 10 times faster than today.

The ImAi project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, is intended to create an animal-free replacement for the Draize test on rabbits used worldwide to assess the eye irritancy potential of chemicals. The new test is based on tissue models of the cornea cultivated in the laboratory. At the end of the project, a new standard procedure should be available for use worldwide.

Dr. Sabine-Amberg Schwab from the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg was presented with the Sustainability Award 2020 by Packaging Europe on 15 October. She received the award for the development of bioORMOCER®s, a sustainable material concept for plastic packaging. The jury particularly emphasised that bioORMOCER®s not only improve the properties of bioplastics and paper, but also make plastic packaging in general recyclable.

The European research initiative BATTERY 2030+ is now getting going. The ambition is to make Europe the world-leader in the development and production of the batteries of the future. These batteries need to store more energy, have a longer life, and be safer and more environmentally friendly than today’s batteries in order to facilitate the transition to a more climate-neutral society. The project is led from Uppsala University.

The conversion of packaging to recyclability, biogenic raw materials or compostability poses great challenges for industry. The Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC supports packaging manufacturers in this change with sustainable multifunctional barrier coatings for easily recyclable, biobased or compostable packaging. For this development, Dr. Sabine Amberg-Schwab was honoured on September 24, 2020 with the German Packaging Award in Gold in the category "Sustainability".

As a pioneer in applied research, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft brings together the expertise of 23 separate Fraunhofer facilities to develop new development and production technologies for innovative cell and gene therapeutics, as well as vaccines, in the “Production for Intelligent Medicine” innovation cluster. As a first step of the project, a concept for a modular pilot plant for the automatic production of these therapeutics is to be developed combining both Industry 4.0 and Health 4.0.

A new European project has been launched to design an innovative high-energy and safe, solid-state lithium-ion battery cell for the electric vehicle market and beyond.

The pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) is placing unprecedented restrictions on public life and economy. The global research efforts to fill the knowledge gaps regarding the new pathogen and to develop effective therapies are correspondingly large. In Wuerzburg, too, researchers from the Fraunhofer Translational Center for Regenerative Therapies are working together with the virologist Prof. Dr. Bodem from the University of Wuerzburg to identify active substances against the virus.