On May 29, 2019, a delegation from ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan) visited the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Materials recycling and Resource Strategies IWKS. ITRI has a similar structure to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and is dedicated to applied research with its around 6,000 employees in Taiwan.

Circular Economy is an important topic in Taiwan as in many other countries of the world. ITRI has set up its own interdisciplinary unit for this topic, headed by Executive Vice-President Dr. Alex Peng. Accompanied by his colleagues, Dr. Peng visited Fraunhofer IWKS in Alzenau with the aim of exchanging ideas with the scientists and finding starting points for future cooperation. In particular, the discussion focused on the topics recycling lithium-ion batteries, recovering raw materials and recycling them, which are also at the heart of the research at Fraunhofer IWKS.

In the next step, the scientists will strive for a regular exchange in order to be able to initiate joint projects in the future.