"Strengthening strengths and combining research objectives"

“Investing in innovation is the secret to Germany’s economic growth!” With these words, Member of the Bundestag Michael Kretschmer congratulated the LaNDER³ project leaders at the kick-off event on July 6. In 2016, with their strategic concept, they were the only university in eastern Germany to successfully advance to the second round of the application phase in the BMBF’s FH-Impuls call for proposals, emerging as one of 20 finalists.

Now, the cross-faculty and cross-departmental research project is set to really gain momentum. To provide an overview of the project’s content and objectives, project manager Dr. Matthias Kinne and partnership spokesperson Prof. Jens Weber invited guests from the worlds of politics and business, as well as university staff and interested members of the public, to the Peter-Dierich-Building. LaNDER³ stands for “Lausitz Natural Fiber Composites: Decentralized Energy, Raw Materials, Resources, Recycling.” The idea behind it is to “pool resources and combine expertise,” according to partnership spokesperson Prof. Jens Weber from the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences. “This is not just about manufacturing materials or supplying fibers, but about considering the entire cycle.”

Research topics thus range from renewable fibers, to the methods used to subsequently manufacture attractive components from them, all the way to recycling and energy-generation processes that are intended to occur as a byproduct. The scope of work and tasks is just as broad as the range of applications for the resulting components made from natural fiber composites.

Two initiative projects and one exploratory project are intended to help intelligently interconnect these processes. “Initiative Project 1: Raw Materials, Recycling, and Energy Supply” aims to extract high-quality natural fibers from plant-based raw materials and to develop sustainable recycling concepts for natural-fiber-reinforced plastics. In addition, research is being conducted to recover the energy content of the recycled materials for use elsewhere. The project is led by Prof. Tobias Zschunke, Prorector for Research at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.

The “Exploratory Project: Functionalization of Natural Fibers to Develop New Applications” is led by Prof. Jens Weber. Among other things, this project seeks to clarify how the fiber is integrated into the plastic composite so that it holds together well. In “Initiative Project 2: Efficient Manufacturing Processes for Novel Natural Fiber-Plastic Composites,” led by Prof. Sebastian Scholz, the focus is on forming a corresponding component (exploratory project), to shape them into a corresponding component.

“LaNDER³ has gained traction because it’s a great topic. It has filled a niche. It’s clear to any interested citizen that the topic is of enormous importance for global development,” said Christoph Zimmer-Conrad. The head of the Technology Policy Division at the Saxon State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor, and Transportation was delighted that, with LaNDER³, the Free State of Saxony is going well on its way to writing another chapter in the success story of Saxony as a high-tech state.

Text: Cornelia Rothe, M.A.