Press / Newsroom

High-profile representatives from government and the research sector gathered yesterday in Berlin for a festive kickoff event in honor of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s eponym, the researcher and entrepreneur Joseph von Fraunhofer. This event also focused on the importance of innovation for Germany's future competitiveness.

What does the future of industrial collaboration look like — and what role will the metaverse play? Fraunhofer experts invite you to an immersive expe-rience in new forms of engineering, service development and human-machine interaction. At the preview event for the Hannover Messe trade show on February 25, 2026, interested visitors will have a first look at photorealistic AI avatars, digital twins and immersive technologies.

The report issued by the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (EFI) underscores how essential a high-performing innovation system is to Germany’s competitiveness and resilience. It is crucial to transfer research findings to real-world applications more quickly, effectively, and systematically. Holger Hanselka, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, emphasizes the need for close and consistent collaboration among policymakers, industry, and academia, as well as a more ambitious research and innovation policy.

Radioactive, chemical or biological substances are undetectable to humans in threatening situations and difficult to detect with remote sensing. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE use specially equipped drones and robots to quickly and precisely localize radioactive sources.

Children are usually examined using ultrasound to protect them from radiation exposure. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA are now working on a system to automatically document the spatial recording position of ultrasound scans relative to the patient's body.

Polyurethanes (PUR) are found in many products, such as upholstered furniture, foam or insulation materials, flooring, paints and even medical catheter tubes. The production of these high-demand plastics, however, relies on toxic isocyanate. Fraunhofer researchers have now developed an alternative production process using harmless dicarbamate.

Fraunhofer research scientists are optimizing the manufacturing of 3D tissue models using a modular sensor platform and AI. Their solution enables continuous quality control in bioreactors and opens up new perspectives for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries – for more than just animal-free drug testing.

Sustainability is an aspect that more and more consumers pay close attention to when buying furniture. As part of their research project titled Linum Tube, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut, WKI have created modern seating furniture that is easy to disassemble, adapt and transport, and is also highly recyclable. The modular systems are made of only two materials: fabric produced from natural fibers and steel tubes.

Startups and scale-ups drive innovation in our economy. The first Fraunhofer Technology Transfer Fund (FTTF) was launched to finance technology-oriented start-ups. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, together with the European Investment Fund (EIF) and, for the first time, private and other public investors, is continuing this successful initiative. The goal of the new TT49 fund, with a planned capitalization of 90 million euros, is to provide early-stage support for innovation from the German and European research landscape and to sustainably strengthen technology transfer.

The partial collapse of the Carola Bridge in Dresden in September 2024 was a wake-up call for Germany’s infrastructure policy. At least 8,000 highway bridges and roughly 18,000 kilometers of railroad in Germany are now considered in need of repair, with the cost of necessary renovations currently estimated at up to 100 billion euros. Continuous infrastructure monitoring is expensive, so it has been neglected. The Engineering of Adaptive Systems institute branch at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is working on an efficient and cost-effective solution: leveraging robust radar sensor technology originally designed for the automobile sector to monitor bridges, rail tracks, and other structures.