Press Releases

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.

The European large-scale research initiative BATTERY 2030+ presents the long-term research roadmap that outlines the actions needed to invent the sustainable batteries of the future.

The design and construction of specialized research tools and customized devices for accurate calibration of laboratory glass has a 30 year tradition at the Fraunhofer ISC. The focus is on calibration as well as the detection of production failures with 100 percent reliability and precision. Meet us at the German Pavilion on Arab Lab 2020 from 16 – 18 March, Booth 417.

Individually manufactured and still suitable for mass production? Cost pressures on the one hand and demand for individualized products on the other require new flexible production processes and materials with individual functionality. The Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC is working on sustainable material concepts and processing technologies that are scalable, variable and efficient – in order to meet "mass production with lot size one" and to enable small, variable and efficient manufacturing units. At this year's NANOTECH in Tokyo, examples from three different work areas of the Fraunhofer ISC will be shown.

Around 60 international experts met on November 7 at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg to report on the state of the art in the field of 3D tissue models and prevention of animal experiments in the development of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. The Forum MedTech Pharma and the Fraunhofer Translational Center for Regenerative Therapies TLC-RT had invited to the conference, which is scheduled to take place annually.