Academic Alliance between TU Braunschweig and Leibniz Universität 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 to solving current social, ecological, technological and economical challenges. Mobilise is built on numerous public-funded joint projects and capitalises on the structural basis of already established research centres at both universities. This includes 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 line of research ‘Mobilise’.  It was submitted for funding under the ‘Excellence Strategy’ enacted 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. QUANOMET 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 Universität Hannover, TU Braunschweig and PTB (the German National Metrology Institute) is a worldwide unique selling point 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’ enacted by the German Government and the federal states.

The line of research SMART BIOTECS focusses 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, as well as 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 Hannover Medical School (MHH) and Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig.

Furthermore, the line of research SMART BIOTECS is 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’.