Best wishes for 2026

As the year draws to a close, I would like to thank you, as well as all our partners from politics, industry, and science, for your trust and the successful collaboration. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the staff of the Fraunhofer IST, whose dedication has contributed significantly to our shared successes.

Once again, 2025 has demonstrated that coating and surface engineering is a key enabling technology for innovative and future-proof products. At the Fraunhofer IST, we take a systemic perspective. We develop competitive and scalable production systems, create solutions for a circular economy, and enable new, sustainable energy systems.

At the Wasserstoff Campus Salzgitter, our focus is on advancing innovative hydrogen technologies and their production processes, as well as on developing digital simulation models for end-to-end value chains in the future hydrogen economy. In Braunschweig, the research building for the Fraunhofer ZESS is emerging as a central pillar of the regional battery ecosystem BLB+. In Wolfsburg, an innovation campus is taking shape where, at the Fraunhofer CCEM, we are developing solutions for the automotive circular economy together with TU Braunschweig, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, and industry partners.

We also had a strong international presence in 2025, including hosting the HIPIMS Conference. We are particularly proud of two distinctions: the PreCare project for mobile healthcare in Africa received the Fraunhofer Future Foundation’s “Innovations for a Better Future” award, presented for the first time. In addition, we won the Manufacturing Challenge at the Optical Interference Coatings Conference (OIC 2025) in the United States with our EOSS^® technology platform. The challenge was to create an interference coating that ultimately reveals the image of a roadrunner – a task our team mastered with outstanding expertise. This achievement inspired us to design an interference coating for this holiday greeting in the shape of a Christmas ornament.

Looking ahead to 2026, we look forward to advancing new ideas with you and delivering further innovations.

I wish you and your family a happy holiday season and a successful start to the New Year.

Christoph Herrmann