Editorial

Dear Readers,

2023 was a very eventful year for Fraunhofer IFF. Our research scientists successfully completed numerous research projects and launched new ones. We developed and put innovative solutions into practice for our clients and partners – German industrial companies. That is our strength as Fraunhofer IFF: We actively employ scientific methods and our long-standing expertise in technologies and software to keep value creation in the high-wage country of Germany and secure it for the future.

Read on the following pages about the research questions we pursued in our projects and the ways we turned them into technical solutions for our clients.

After several years of planning and construction, including particular challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, we opened our new research and demonstration factory, the Elbfabrik, in the fall of 2023—a milestone that makes us proud and at which we would like to give you a brief look in these pages.

And, finally, we will also give you a look at our institute’s most important facts and figures.

Enjoy reading our 2023 annual report.

Magdeburg, May 2024

Your,
Prof. Julia Arlinghaus

Our Mission

Our mission in this changing world is to help industrial companies safeguard decent jobs in Germany long-term and simultaneously contribute to more sustainability and climate change mitigation.

We treat companies in their entirety and in the context their particular location and given circumstances. With an eye toward the digitalized, automated and sustainable factory of the future, we see our research mission in four interrelated fields.

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Projects

Highlights

Automation for People

Automation X

The SHOP4CF project examined how a software platform establishes the basis for human-centered automated solutions and how software tools increase robot safety.

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Staying Competitive

Net Zero X

A feasibility study for logistics provider MOSOLF reveals that sustainable energy supply solutions stay cost-effective.

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Defect-Free Single Item Manufacturing

Superhuman Operator

How augmented reality is assisting with the assembly of clamping systems in custom equipment manufacturing

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Taking Collaboration Further

Digital Family

Interorganizational platform enables information and knowledge sharing with a manufacturing plant’s digital twin

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Fraunhofer IFF in Numbers

Budget and Revenue*

Fraunhofer IFF’s total budgeted expenditures in the year 2023 amounted to €20.1 million. Total outside revenues amounted to €11.4 million. Business revenue accounted for € 4.2 million of that.

€7.3 million came from public sector, EU and other funding. Institutional funding comprised €8.7 million. Budgeted capital expenditures for the year 2023 totaled €0.5 million.

*All amounts are rounded

Human Resource Development

Fraunhofer IFF employed 202 full-time employees as of December 31, 2023. The majority of our research scientists have a degree in an engineering discipline. Staff with degrees in human sciences, economics, mathematics, physics and business work at the institute as well. They all work together in interdisciplinary research teams and administrative services.

Education and Training

Fifty-seven student assistants and seven interns additionally supported our research work. We are also pleased to have supervised three professional trainees.

Thirty-seven employees of Fraunhofer IFF worked as faculty and adjunct faculty at universities and universities of applied science. Altogether, we advised thirty-six master’s and Diplom theses and four successfully completed dissertations. Furthermore, the institute’s research scientists published seventy-six scientific articles and papers in 2023.

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