On 11 January 2011 around 80 high-raking guests from industry and research met in Hanau to discuss the safeguarding of raw material supply in the future. The background to the event was the joint initiative of the Materials Valley e. V. and the Fraunhofer Society e. V. to found a new institute for materials recycling and substitution in the District of Aschaffenburg. The Bavarian State Government has already earmarked 5 million Euro as start-up funding.

Supplies of raw materials such as metals, precious metals and rare earth is of immense importance to the German production industry. As a country poor in raw materials, Germany relies on the import of almost all of the important base materials necessary for high technology. In the course of the growing industrialisation of emerging countries, supply shortages are inevitable in the future. As Dr. Wulf Brämer, CEO of the association Materials Valley emphasised, it is absolutely essential to safeguard the supply of raw materials. In parallel, better use of raw materials must be achieved by means of intelligent material recycling. “Resource use instead of resource consumption,” summarised Prof. Gerhard Sextl, head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg in his talk on the strategic and thematic orientation of the new, planned Fraunhofer Institute. The Fraunhofer ISC has been charged by the Fraunhofer Society with continuing the preparations.

The task of such an institute will be to work on new procedures for recycling materials under economic and ecological aspects. Furthermore, alternatives to commonly used materials will be developed, which can be procured and produced more easily, thus safeguarding the supply of materials that are essential to production.

High-ranking industry representatives from Materials Valley e. V. such as Dr. Frank Heinricht, CEO of Heraeus Holding GmbH, confirmed that the producing and processing industries need support in this matter from the field of applied science, in order to be able to make the correct decisions as quickly as possible with regard to a secure supply of raw materials. For this reason it is right to turn to the Fraunhofer Society when considering such a new research institute.

Prof. Hans-Jörg Bullinger, President of the Fraunhofer Society, also stressed how important the topic of raw materials has become. That is why the Fraunhofer Society is happy to support the plans to found a new Fraunhofer Institute. Bullinger asked the representatives of the ministries for their committed support for these plans. The Federal State of Bavaria has already approved a start-up funding of the plans to the amount of 5 million Euros. At present, possible locations in the north-western District of Aschaffenburg are being evaluated. Intensive cooperation is planned with the TU Darmstadt and the Aschaffenburg University of Applied Science, as well as other research institutes with relevant knowledge.