Institute of Natural Materials Technology
The fusion into the Institute of Natural Materials Technology is based on the long established, fruitful cooperation of the different chairs in the Centre for Integrated Natural Materials Technology (ZINT):
The Institute
The Institute brings together expertise in the extraction, processing and refinement of natural materials along the value chain, e.g. for food, biotechnological products or wood and fiber materials in the sense of a circular economy. The recent establishment of a new Chair of Productive Biofilm Technology together with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig (UFZ) and the appointment of the Chairman of the Paper Technology Foundation as Honorary Professor of Paper Technology further strengthen the Institute of Natural Materials Technology in terms of content and underline the networking in the region. As a result, university education and research will be even better linked with industry-related research and development, as is also manifested in an intensive relationship with the Fraunhofer IVV branch for processing machines and packaging technology.
The establishment of this institute will help to better coordinate research in an increasingly complex world in order to shift from a resource-consuming to a bio-based economy. In order to develop a knowledge-based, internationally competitive bioeconomy, the German government has launched the "National Research Strategy BioEconomy 2030". The Institute of Natural Materials Technology is active in all of the areas of activity defined there:
- Securing global food supplies
- Sustainable organization of agricultural production
- Production of healthy and safe food
- Industrial use of renewable raw materials
- Development of energy sources based on biomass