2015 was a successful year. Through our activities, we were able to connect many stakeholders across the entire value chain and help lay the foundation for success—in both the scientific and business communities—in all of North Rhine-Westphalia’s key markets.
We are equally pleased by the positive feedback from the state government, which in October once again commissioned us to continue our work, as we are by observing and evaluating the progress of the projects we have initiated in order to derive ideas for future activities and to secure—and further expand—North Rhine-Westphalia’s economic success and leadership in innovation.
It’s already becoming clear that 2016 will be “full of music,” and I’m already looking forward to working closely with you in the new year. At the end of last year, we—together with various partners—launched a NRW-wide company survey as part of the “Lightweight Construction Initiative.” I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks for the active participation and the feedback, which even went beyond the scope of our survey. The survey—which aims to highlight the potential of North Rhine-Westphalia’s companies in this promising industry while also identifying potential weaknesses—is currently being evaluated. We are eager to see the results, which we will incorporate into our strategy. You can find more information about our activities in the field of multimaterial lightweight construction on our website, on our portal, and in upcoming issues of our magazine.
In mid-February, the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia will launch an exciting funding competition on the topic of “thermoelectric generators” with an interesting kick-off event. For this event, the ministry and we were able to bring together many high-profile speakers from research and industry to inform interested parties about the state of the art and potential industrial applications. These generators are capable of converting “waste heat” into electrical current, thereby making it usable. With energy demand steadily rising and the significantly increased need for resource-efficient and sustainable production processes, this technology is not only in line with current trends but also offers many advantages over conventional technologies—including the fact that the generators are largely maintenance-free—and a significantly broader range of potential applications.