Bioeconomy

Expert interview - 05/04/2018

Bioeconomy research delivers results of practical relevance

The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts has been funding the "Bioeconomy Research Programme Baden-Württemberg" since 2014. In his role as the chairman of the Strategy Circle and Steering Committee Professor Dr. Thomas Hirth has been instrumental in shaping the programme. Dr. Ursula Göttert from BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg talked with Prof. Hirth about how the bioeconomy has progressed in Baden-Württemberg.

The last round of file ideas for projects within the 7th Research framework program has been started. The European Commission will support innovative projects over eight billion euros to europe for global competition to strengthen and protect jobs. In addition to innovation, the focus is on health, environment, urbanization and waste disposal. The promotion is organizations and companies in all EU-member-states and partner countries open.

Article - 14/11/2011

DFG research group to unravel prokaryotic immune system

It is difficult to believe that unicellular organisms such as archaea and bacteria can have developed sophisticated strategies to fight off foreign nucleic acids. However, many of these tiny organisms actually possess a virus defence mechanism known as CRISPR/Cas. Compared to this defence mechanism, protective mechanisms such as restriction and modification appear extremely clumsy indeed.

Press release - 31/08/2011

»Lean Production« in the world of bacteria

Insilico Biotechnology will use its models and simulations to improve bioproduction via bacteria by throwing unnecessary ballast overboard. Bacteria for industrial purposes can do without the survival and adaptation strategies needed in natural environments so these metabolic pathways and products are to be eliminated for production processes. The pioneer research project is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and…

Dossier - 30/05/2011

Knowledge and technology transfer as a social responsibility

Technology transfer that efficiently exploits the intellectual property created by publicly funded research is necessary in order to turn scientific discoveries into successful innovations that improve people’s quality of life and boost the economy. The efforts made to rapidly transfer research results from the laboratory into clinical application for the benefit of patients leads to new strategic partnerships and structures in the field of…

Article - 03/05/2010

In order to innovate, we must come down from the ivory tower

At talks given at the recent Biotechnology Days in Berlin representatives of a number of different BMBF-funded clusters showed that numerous strategies to enable the industrial production of biopolymers and biomaterials from resources other than oil are now available.

Dossier - 12/10/2009

A green view - plant genome research

Research into the plant genome reveals many fundamental mechanisms some of which are also found in animals and human beings. Research increases the possibility of application in particular for the improvement of food animal feed and energy plants. However there is more to it than just transgenic plants.

Article - 15/07/2009

The gap in the value creation chain

On a national level the University of Freiburg comes out reasonably well in comparison with other universities regarding the number of patents filed and licensed. But is it enough to protect an intellectual property and sell it to a company? No says Prof. Dr. Bernhard Arnolds from the Central Office of Research Funding and Technology Transfer at the University of Freiburg.

Since the end of July 2008 the Biomaterials laboratory of the Empa in St. Gallen has been an official member of the BioLAGO BioRegion. We talked with Dr. Manfred Zinn about how the researchers find materials with the desired properties.

In Baden-Württemberg biopolymers are becoming an important focus of interest. The “Biopolymer/Biomaterials Cluster” organised by BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH, addresses the development and processing of bioplastics.

In its applied science and technology transfer activities Constance University of Applied Sciences will focus to an even greater extent on special research priorities and interdisciplinarity. For this reason three new institutes have been set up.