Academic Alliance between TU Braunschweig and Leibniz University Hannover

The academic alliance between the two universities was developed under the direction of the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony (MWK). A masterplan identifies common strategic development goals. It pools complementary scientific strengths in the promising research fields of mobility, metrology and life sciences.

The research lines derived from this are Mobilise, QUANOMET and SMART BIOTECS. The state of Lower Saxony will fund the alliance for five years, with start-up funding of 27 million euros – amounting to nine million euros per line of research for five years or 1.8 million euros per annum.

Lines of research

The goal of this line of research is to plan and design the mobility of tomorrow and to provide scientific and interdisciplinary support. Within the scope of numerous projects in the fields of digitalisation, energy system transformation, production and lightweight construction, scientists are developing approaches for solving current social, ecological, technological and economic challenges. Mobilise is built on numerous publicly funded joint projects and utilises the structural basis of existing research centres at both universities. These include the Automotive Research Centre Niedersachsen in Braunschweig and the L3S Research Centre in Hannover.

The proposal for the project "Sustainable and Energy-Efficient Aviation (SE² A)" is part of the Mobilise line of research. It was submitted for funding under the "Excellence Strategy" initiated by the German government and the federal states.

QUANOMET concerns the development and application of metrological methods in the field of nano- and quantum technologies. It aims to further develop more precise measurement methods. It also influences other fields such as medical diagnosis and climate research. The requirements of metrology and especially quantum metrology are very complex and require an interdisciplinary approach. QUANOMET is excellently equipped for this. The combined expertise of Leibniz University Hannover, TU Braunschweig and PTB (the German National Metrology Institute) is a unique selling point worldwide regarding precision manufacturing processes, analytics and measurement technology.

The draft proposal for the project "QuantumFrontiers" (Light and Matter at the Quantum Frontier: Foundations of and Applications in Metrology) was developed as part of this line of research. It was submitted for funding under the "Excellence Strategy" initiated by the German government and the federal states.

The SMART BIOTECS line of research focuses on the production of new medicines and the development of intelligent implants. SMART BIOTECS covers the entire value chain from basic research to patient-tailored solutions by combining existing expertise in natural products chemistry, biotechnology, micro/nanotechnology, pharmaceutical process engineering, material sciences, process and production engineering, and electrical engineering. Researchers are successfully working together with several partners to combat neurodegenerative and infectious diseases and to develop regenerative therapies for an ageing society. In particular, partners include the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig.

The SMART BIOTECS line of research is also cooperating with the excellence clusters "REBIRTH – From Regenerative Biology to Reconstructive Therapy" and "Hearing for All: Models, Technology and Solutions for Diagnostics, Restoration and Support of Hearing".