From zero to one hundred

Sixteen interested and highly motivated members of the Energy Saxony working groups“Heating and Cooling” and “Building Energy Technology” participated in the innovation workshop on November 24: (Seasonal) Heat Storage Systems and Their Systemic Integration. The event was led by Mareike Schneider from the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (a staff member of the Saxony⁵ university network⁾. The workshop was hosted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS (Development of Adaptive Systems Division EAS) in Dresden.

The Saxony⁵ transfer network project aims to “achieve a new level of quality in knowledge transfer—both in terms of content and methodology—through interdisciplinary collaboration and intelligent networking, thereby fostering sustainable welfare development for the region.”

Linking interesting event concepts with current research topics is one of the project’s tasks, and it is always a great pleasure when researchers from a wide variety of disciplines approach this with curiosity and when partners from the business sector can also be brought on board.

No sooner said than done! The workshop was designed and organized, the necessary materials were prepared, and invitations were sent to the working groups.

The Workshop

At 10 a.m. on Friday morning, Dr. Andreas Wilde, head of the “Building Energy Technology” working group and host at Fraunhofer IIS, opened the workshop. Marcus Rohne, a doctoral candidate at TU Bergakademie Freiberg and a research associate at the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz, then delivered the first keynote presentation titled “Fundamentals, Current State of Development, and Application Scenarios for Heat Storage,” thereby providing a technical introduction to the event. The second opening presentation came from Energy Saxony on “Current Funding Opportunities” and was delivered by Dr. Clemens Schneider, chair of the “Heating and Cooling” working group.

Following the keynote presentations, the program moved directly to personal introductions by the participants and the matching process for the subsequent group work. The central questions during the introductions and matching were: “What expertise do I bring to the network?” and “What motivates me to be here?”

The matching process resulted in three groups, each consisting of various research and educational institutions as well as regional companies.

The first phase of the group work focused primarily on identifying challenges and goals, as well as documenting initial thoughts, ideas, and potential solutions that emerged from the group’s self-reflection.

Even before lunch, the individual project ideas were collected and briefly presented to all workshop participants, allowing for further networking during the one-hour lunch break.

The second phase of the group work then focused on developing the selected project ideas in concrete terms. Potential and markets, possible funding programs, and additional project partners—right through to the definition of work packages and their respective responsibilities—were documented in writing, and the next steps were determined jointly.

Shortly before 3:00 p.m., two of the three groups reached an agreement: “Yes, we’re submitting a joint project proposal!”

The details worked out for each project title naturally remained strictly confidential! This made it all the more wonderful to find a way to wrap up the workshop that once again energized and brought together all the participants.

A Lego challenge was spontaneously launched, in which everyone enthusiastically participated and which even brought the last participant to on a first-name basis with everyone else. The announcement of the winner marked the final conclusion of the innovation workshop.

We wish all participants every success in bringing their ideas to life!

Your team at Energy Saxony & Saxony⁵