Lightweight series-produced automobiles with low fuel consumption, low-noise and low-emission aircraft, active substances against infectious diseases, personalized medicines, measurement technology for nanotechnology or strategies for the Future City: By bundling our research activities, we are making contributions to tackling major societal challenges. In doing so, we work closely with the internationally renowned research facilities in Braunschweig.
Research jet engine at the Institute of Jet propulsion and Turbomachinery
In the research focus "Mobility", researchers investigate innovative technologies for sustainable and environmentally compatible mobility. Topics include the intelligent vehicle and connected driving, charging infrastructure, mobility management and digitalization. In aerospace research, the focus is on reducing emissions and noise pollution as well as the recyclability of air transport systems and the further development of air traffic management.
New materials and production technologies are also key to more sustainable Mobility, as they enable resource-efficient manufacturing of components or drive systems. The spectrum of research into electrochemical energy storage systems covers the entire value chain - from materials development through electrode and cell production to recycling.
We bundle interdisciplinary research in the Automotive Research Centre Niedersachsen (NFF). in the Aeronautics Research Centre Niedersachsen (NFL) as well as in the Cluster of Excellence Sustainable and Energy Efficient Aviation (SE²A). Key areas of production technology for mobility applications offer a powerful laboratory infrastructure: The Open Hybrid LabFactory (OHLF) conducts research on lightweight construction technologies with hybrid materials. The Battery LabFactory Braunschweig (BLB) develops high-performance batteries for mobility applications.
The research focus Metrology covers the topic of measurement in all its diversity. At TU Braunschweig, this diversity comes together in one place in the Laboratory for Emerging Nanometrology (LENA). There, our researchers investigate atomic structures in a high-resolution electron microscope. Or, they develop their own unique devices to enter uncharted territory, such as terahertz frequencies.
Starting from such basic research of measurement, our researchers in the research focus Metrology put the knowledge gained into practice. For example, in the epitaxy competence center ec², they reduce LEDs to nanometer size and use them to produce fist-sized microscopes that work beyond the diffraction limit.
Another special feature of the Metrology research focus is the many connections to our partners. In the Cluster of Excellence QuantumFrontiers, we are conducting joint research with the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt and Leibniz Universität Hannover on the limits of the measurable. The push into unprecedented sensitivity and precision thereby lays the foundation for developing a scalable quantum computer together with industrial partners in Quantum Valley Lower Saxony.
The research focus "Engineering for Health - from Molecules to Processes" at TU Braunschweig is an interdisciplinary platform for cutting-edge research in engineering and health. Our goal is the research of infection mechanisms and active agents as well as pharmaceutical processes and products. We work on scientific approaches to make biological processes predictable and research the cost-effective production of patient-specific drugs.
To this end, our focus brings together researchers in biology, chemistry, pharmaceutics, physics, mathematics, computer science, process and production engineering, and microtechnology. This enables us to map the entire value chain - from research into the molecular basis of infections and possible drug targets, to drug development, formulation, production and packaging.
At the heart of the focus are two research centers: the Braunschweig Center for Systems Biology and the Center for Pharmaceutical Process Engineering. Both are closely linked with experts from the research region: with the DSMZ - German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), the Fraunhofer Institutes for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM and for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt and with partners from industry with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. This combination of know-how is unique in the German research landscape.
According to forecasts, more than three quarters of all people will live in cities in the future. In the research focus Future City, we explore how cities can continue to meet the needs of their inhabitants in the face of the far-reaching challenges of a globalized world, advancing urbanization, resource depletion, and climate change.
We meet the challenges of future urban development by bringing together different disciplinary approaches, expertise and perspectives of researchers as well as partners from practice. In our collaboration we focus on inter- and transdisciplinarity!
What makes our research focus special, however, is above all the view beyond the city limits. We strive to understand cities not only physically, but in their full depth: historically, literarily, philosophically, socially, and ecologically.
