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The self-sufficient PreCare platform, mounted on a standard pickup truck, enables the deployment of medical care units in remote and hard-to-reach regions of southern Africa. For a further practical test, the mobile care unit was handed over to the N/a’an ku sê Foundation in December 2025 and tested during a field deployment in Namibia. This test deployment has now been successfully completed. The Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST and its spin-off S Mile Solutions report a thoroughly positive outcome.

Diamond coatings are considered a key technology for numerous industrial applications – from power electronics to optics to sensors. To enable these high-performance coatings to fully realize their potential, uniformity is crucial. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST have developed a new measurement and analysis method that allows the optical constants of large-scale diamond films to be determined with high precision and efficiency.

A sheet of metal just 1 millimeter thick, a coating system, and lots of curious questions: At Future Day 2026 at Fraunhofer IST, students were able to experience how a simple surface is transformed into a functional high-tech material. Together with Fraunhofer WKI, the institute opened its doors and gave the young guests a hands-on insight into the world of applied research.

In 2025, the international SuSteelAG consortium - led by Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) - launched its mission to decarbonize steel production using hydrogen, including when working with lower grade ores. Now, the first industrial scale pilot test has been successfully completed in Namibia: In an electrically powered hydrogen rotary kiln, 80 tonnes of Australian iron ore were converted climate neutrally into direct reduced iron (DRI). With this, SuSteelAG is paving the way for a sustainable value chain linking Australia, Namibia, and Germany -from iron production and refinement to green steel.

The industrial transformation toward climate-friendly processes is one of the central challenges of our time. Hydrogen plays a key role in this transition – especially in energy-intensive industries where conventional energy sources have so far been difficult to replace. At the Salzgitter site, concrete solutions are being developed, tested, and transferred into practice for this purpose. The Wasserstoff Campus Salzgitter brings together expertise from research, industry, and education to advance innovative technologies along the entire hydrogen value chain.

The transfer of the COAD® process, developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, into industrial applications has been recognized with its inclusion in the final selection for the 2026 IHK Technology Transfer Award. For 40 years, the Braunschweig Chamber of Industry and Commerce has been honoring projects that successfully translate research results into industrial solutions, thereby strengthening the region’s innovation capabilities.

How can relevant data from batteries be digitally recorded, linked, and made usable for informed decisions along the entire value chain? In practice, data on battery composition, environmental impacts, and optimal recycling pathways are often incomplete or inconsistent. This is where the new publicly funded research project “DiVaBatt – Digital Value Chain Resource Planning” for circular battery cell production, which started on February 1, 2026, comes in. The aim of the joint project is to create transparency in the battery value chain through digital and AI-supported solutions, thereby enabling a sustainable, economical, and regulation-compliant battery circular economy. The project started with collaborative kick-off meeting of all partners on February 3 and 4, 2026, in Hamburg.

When investors, start-ups and researchers come together, environments are created in which scientific findings can be applied in practice and achieve commercial success. Such a setting was provided by the Business Angel Matching Evening, which was organized by the BANSON e. V. initiative in collaboration with the Competence Network Industrial Plasma Surface Technology e.V. INPLAS and took place at the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST on 10 February 2026. In addition to five selected start-ups, two Fraunhofer IST spin-offs also presented themselves, thereby taking the opportunity to showcase their technologies and development prospects.

How can coating and etching processes be made more efficient, robust, and data-driven? This question was the focus of the industry workshop “Plasma Process Simulation Tools for Industrial Coating and Etching Systems – Latest Developments and Future Trends,” which the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST organized on January 28 and 29 in collaboration with boltzplatz and PlasmaSolve.

For many people in the remote regions of Namibia, the journey to the nearest clinic or doctor presents an obstacle that is almost impossible to overcome. The indigenous population in particular, including the San community, suffers from a lack of medical care. High rates of tuberculosis and HIV, and a lack of hygiene infrastructure, combined with long distances mean that preventive and therapeutic care is difficult to provide. Now, however, a technological innovation is offering hope: the self-sufficient PreCare platform, mounted on a standard pick-up truck, is designed to make primary healthcare available in even the most remote, hard-to-reach areas.