When our last year's annual report was published at the end of March 2020, the first lockdown had just been decided in Germany. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly and permanently changed our lives, our daily routine and our business processes. Despite the difficult underlying conditions, we can look back on a successful year. The Institute's positive development was driven by a stable economic output and an increase in publicly funded project activities.
We also provided important impetus in the Fraunhofer-internal activity program “Fraunhofer vs. Corona“ in which many institutes are joining forces to develop innovative solutions to combat the pandemic. In addition, we were successful with excellent projects in the “Fraunhofer Innovation Program“, which aims to contribute to the renewal process of the economy, and were able to pursue important future topics – in line with our strategic orientation. The focus here is on new technologies for climate neutrality and the circular economy.
Our vision “We combine biology and engineering“ has thus been confirmed as forward-looking and resilient in the current pandemic and beyond.