High-Performance Center

The High-Performance Center Sustainable Ocean Business focuses on innovative solutions for sustainable underwater technologies. The relevant expertise for sustainable underwater technology is already available in Rostock, both in research as well as in small and medium-sized industry. The High-Performance Center combines the available expertise at the sites in Rostock and Lübeck and is expanding these specifically as a technology broker in order to facilitate a comprehensive technology transfer into practice. In doing so, the High-Performance Center supports the development of the Ocean Technology Campus Rostock OTC, the establishment of the interdisciplinary Fraunhofer research group Smart Ocean Technologies as well as a future cluster of the BMBF, which is currently being established.

Robust transfer structure as a pillar of interdisciplinary research

In the beginning, the High-Performance Center will pool the expertise of the partners involved in two interdisciplinary research projects. An analytical lab will facilitate the evaluation of selected marine environmental parameters with a focus on microbiological studies of water status and efficient analytics for the characterization of pollutants such as microplastics. Quality standards will be specified and made available to the market in a standardized manner. Another research focus is the multisensory detection of technical underwater structures like ship hulls or bulkheads. Existing optical and acoustic underwater measurement methods will be integrated using flexible equipment carriers, combined with comprehensive analysis software and qualified for use in various application scenarios up to commercial viability.

The objective is to establish the High-Performance Center as a voice and intermediary for forming alliances between SMEs and research. Real and virtual showrooms will be set up for organized demonstrations of the technological capabilities. An Enterprise Lab will promote strategic cooperation between research and industry and will provide specialized trainings. By working closely with startups, the High-Performance Center will facilitate the regional entrepreneurial culture in the field of marine and underwater technology as well as spin-offs. With its focus on sustainable solutions, the High-Performance Center Sustainable Ocean Business will consequently support the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development as well as the UN Sustainable Ocean Business Action Platform.

The High-Performance Center brings together the four Fraunhofer Institutes, which are already pooling their expertise at the Rostock site in the Fraunhofer research group Smart Ocean Technologies: Fraunhofer IGD, IGP, IKTS and IOSB. Furthermore, the Fraunhofer EMB in Lübeck brings its many years of expertise in integrated aquaculture and in molecular biology and cell cultures from marine organisms with its own simulation center for maritime technology to the table. The High-Performance Center cooperates with the Hansenetzwerk Aquakultur in Lübeck via the EMB. The University of Rostock (Department of Maritime Systems) and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde will be involved initially in establishing the High-Performance Center via a memorandum of understanding.