A beacon for advanced materials
A recent setup, the INAM network intends to introduce brilliant ideas to the field
No basic research, no advanced materials. Yet all too often, pioneering knowledge fails to leave the laboratory because scientists shun the step to the product. It is important that all players join forces in the process from the idea to the marketable innovation. For this reason, researchers and industry representatives recently came together in the Adlershof Science and Technology Park to take part in the Innovation Network for Advanced Materials (INAM).
“The objective is to develop and realise innovative concepts for the application of advanced materials and technologies in electronics, optics, and photonics,” explained Nikolai Puhlmann, interim INAM chair. These include, for example, new printing technologies for reducing production process costs, transparent, electrically conducting coatings for thin-film solar cells, and the further development of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) for the automotive sector. “We find it particularly important to combine basic research and application to the maximum possible extent,” stressed Puhlmann.
Accordingly, the INAM partners along the entire value chain include OSRAM GmbH, Ledvance GmbH, the Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences (IRIS Adlershof) of HU Berlin, the business promoter Berlin Partner, and WISTA-MANAGEMENT GMBH. The expertise these embody presents itself over a broad front: other network users are the specialised product design agency Pilotfish GmbH, the open development workshop Fab Lab Berlin, and patent and technology transfer consultants at Humboldt-Innovation GmbH and Weitnauer Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft.
Initially conceived for three years, the network was initiated by guiding intellectual forces from Adlershof and Berlin Partner. This should not come as a surprise. After all, the many non-university research institutes and innovative companies nestled around the IRIS in Adlershof have given rise to a competence centre for optical analytics and material sciences.
By Mirko Heinemann for Adlershof Special