Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences is among the ten selected from 80 applicants and is expected to receive more than five million euros from the BMBF's "Strong Universities of Applied Sciences - Impulse for the Region" (FH-Impuls) funding measure. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research informed the university management yesterday that Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences has made it through to the final of the "FH-Impuls" competition and is therefore one of the ten universities that will receive an average of around five million euros in funding.

With the funding, the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences will make a contribution to the sustainable and economical use of renewable raw materials in the project "LaNDER³ - Lusatian Natural Fiber Composites: Decentralized Energy, Raw Materials, Resources, Recycling " in cooperation with primarily regional companies and research institutions, such as the Fraunhofer Institute IWU. The research activities focus on natural fiber-reinforced plastics (NFRP) and their entire product life cycle. The projects, which build on each other thematically, address the development of efficient technologies and processes for the production, refinement, use and recycling of NFRP as well as the generation of energy from biological residues during fiber production and the recycling of plastics. LaNDER³ brings together the university's existing research areas of "Energy and Environment" and "Materials-Structure-Surfaces", thereby helping to sharpen its research profile.

"With LaNDER³, we now have a strong basis for working together with companies in the region to develop new, environmentally friendly products that are successful on the market,"

says the Rector, Prof. Friedrich Albrecht. Partnership spokesperson Prof. Jens Weber commented:

 "I am delighted with the success of our project - LaNDER³ - in the BMBF competition against 80 other universities. This opens up new and expanded perspectives for us. The focus is on linking the two main research areas of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences "Energy and Environment" and "Materials-Structure-Surfaces". In particular, the focus on materials, which has developed at the university in recent years, can be substantially strengthened. With the more than five million euros that the BMBF is providing for the project, investments can be made in the latest technology. This will enable around twelve scientific employees to work on application-oriented issues together with our partners - and we can transfer the findings directly into teaching."

The Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences has so far been able to attract more than 20 cooperation partners from industry and eight scientific partners for the project. The project currently consists of eight individual projects for holistic technology and system development, which should help natural fiber-reinforced plastics to become ecologically and economically competitive.

Natural fibers from regionally available biomass, economically broken down by recycling residual materials, converted into high-tech composites as lightweight, resilient materials in an energy-efficient manner into ready-to-use components, coated in a functional manner and recyclable - all steps optimally supplied with energy within the process - that is the goal. The partnership is thus revolutionizing the entire product life cycle of natural fibre reinforced plastics (NFRP).

"With FH-Impuls, we want to support research-intensive universities of applied sciences in exploiting their innovation potential more effectively and cooperating even more intensively with small and medium-sized enterprises in the region,"

said Federal Minister of Education and Research, Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka.

" Universities of applied sciences are important drivers of development in their region: they train skilled workers close to business needs and are also powerful research partners for the economy. In this way, they make a significant contribution to turning ideas into innovative products and services more quickly. With FH-Impuls, we will be funding a total of ten research and innovation partnerships between universities of applied sciences and primarily regional businesses for a maximum of eight years  with a total volume of around 100 million euros. We are thus sending  a clear signal to the UAS landscape and strengthening their competitiveness in the science system."

In addition, the FH-Impuls funding for research-strong universities of applied sciences will have a major leverage effect, especially in structurally weaker regions, and will be able to leverage a great deal of research potential.