Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGBProject groups become institute branches
In the last five years three project groups were set up at the Fraunhofer IGB – in Leuna, Straubing and Würzburg. With the start-up financing by the relevant federal states having come to an end, and with the groups having been successfully evaluated in 2013 and 2014, in 2014 all three project groups were transferred over to the combined federal and statelevel financing arrangements (Bund-Länder-Finanzierung) of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, thereby becoming permanent branches of the Fraunhofer IGB.
The setting-up of the Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes CBP at the Leuna chemical park, made possible by the Land of Saxony-Anhalt and by various project funding arrangements, became official on April 1, 2009, and the groundbreaking followed in December 2010. On October 2, 2012, the new building was inaugurated in the presence of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. In May 2014 the project group at the CBP, under the leadership of Gerd Unkelbach, was given a positive evaluation.
The Fraunhofer project group BioCat, financed by the Free State of Bavaria, began its work in August 2009 and in 2012 celebrated the inauguration of the new laboratory building in the Schulgasse in Straubing. The project group, led by Prof. Dr. Volker Sieber, received a positive evaluation as early as the start of 2013. At the end of 2013, BioCat also received a notification of funding for the “Center for Energy Storage” at the Straubing site; since then, the Free State has been continuing to provide funding for the Center and will do so until the five-year period ends.
There is also news from the IGB site in Würzburg. Following a positive evaluation of the project group “Regenerative Therapies in Oncology” led by Prof. Dr. Heike Walles this project group, which has been financed by the Free State of Bavaria since 2009, has also been included in the combined federal and state-level financing arrangements of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. Thanks to additional funding from Bavaria, in mid- July 2014 the project group became part of the new Fraunhofer Translational Center “Regenerative Therapies for Oncology and Musculoskeletal Diseases”. The Free State is funding the Center’s work over a period of five years with a sum of ten million euros; the funding notification was issued in November.