T!Raum project syntral launched

On April 1, 2023, the T!Raum initiative syntral was launched with the Institute for Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology (ILK) of the TU Dresden as project coordinator and 17 initial project partners from the Lausitz region. Within the framework of the T!Raum initiative, which is funded by the BMBF, the sustainable transfer of ideas, knowledge and technologies into innovative transfer structures and lightweight construction applications will be developed and designed over the next nine years.
Modern lightweight system construction is one of the essential key technologies for the circular economy, which is steadily gaining in importance. With the Transferraum syntral, new methods and low-threshold offers of know-how transfer into the economy of Upper Lusatia are to be conceived, developed and tested. In this way, the unique knowledge of the universities and research institutions is to help create high-quality, long-term stable and value-adding jobs in the region's companies. In particular, the transfer area addresses the plastics and metal processing companies with their more than 60,000 jobs in Saxony. In terms of methodology, syntral initially relies on multipliers and associations to initiate an open, cross-company, pre-competitive and synergetic exchange of ideas and experience in new transfer formats. The spectrum ranges from new, digitized forms of training and continuing education to targeted personal development and cooperative real laboratories. In terms of organization, syntral draws on the many years of experience of the selected partners, who have initiated and implemented a wide range of transfer formats and clusters at national and international level.
The T!Raum initiative syntral aims to transfer the know-how available in the participating research institutions in the field of modern lightweight system construction to industrial value creation in the Upper Lusatia region. The focus is on the transfer of existing regional technologies and innovations for lightweight system construction and the circular economy with a special focus on small and micro enterprises. The initiative is to become a central place for networking established, existing and new transfer formats as well as for communication between science, business and society. The overarching strategic goals of the Transfer Space are therefore:
- Establishment of a nationally visible industrial cluster in resource-efficient lightweight system construction in Lusatia,
- problem-adapted transfer of existing regional innovations and research results at eye level with SMEs,
- Increasing the attractiveness of training through new digitalized decentralized offers as well as
- supraregional vitalization and networking of existing regional cluster structures in new thematic fields in Lusatia.

As a result of the planned coal phase-out, Lusatia is undergoing a tough and, above all, particularly rapid structural change. With its generally weak industrialization, it offers hardly any alternative jobs for the employees who have been made redundant. Suitable training programs are not yet taking effect. The focused region has a predominantly micro and small-scale corporate structure. Very few companies have a strong focus on a broad customer structure, international markets or cooperative partnerships with scientific locations. This regionally oriented corporate landscape must be networked and transformed into a stable and resilient structure through the development of skilled workers and the transfer of research results.
The T!Raum initiative syntral aims to overcome hurdles, install transfer approaches and develop low-threshold offers. Only if we succeed in bridging interdisciplinary differences and dividing lines between the many different players in lightweight systems engineering can technology transfer succeed on an equal footing.