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The Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST has once again been awarded the “Zukunftgeber” employer seal by the Employers' Association for the Braunschweig Region (Arbeitgeberverband, AGV). Following its initial certification in 2022 and its first recertification in 2024, this latest award once again confirms the institute’s high appeal as an employer in the region.

Yasmine Hildebrand from the Fraunhofer IST was awarded the TUmorrow Award 2026 of the Technical University of Braunschweig in the category “Outstanding Bachelor’s Thesis.” The award recognizes academic work that makes a significant contribution to sustainable and future-oriented development.

Precision optical coatings are key technologies for modern optical systems. These complex coatings impose stringent requirements for uniformity, process stability and productivity on an industrial scale. Stefan Bruns, Philipp Farr and Michael Vergöhl from the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST in Braunschweig have developed a unique coating technology for precision optics systems that meets these requirements and is already in use in industry. Their efforts have earned them the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize for 2026.

When glowing-hot steel is forged or precision components with near-net-shape profiles are manufactured from high-temperature materials, tools are subjected to extreme stresses. High temperatures, wear, and aggressive media significantly determine their service life. Modern surface technologies therefore play a central role in efficient, cost-effective, and resource-conserving production processes. This is precisely where the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST comes in. With an expanded infrastructure, the institute can now map the entire process chain for the development of boride-based high-performance surfaces at its own site.

A single drop of oil can contaminate up to 1,000 liters of groundwater. The Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST will demonstrate how industrial manufacturing processes can be made more resource-efficient at Lower Saxony Day 2026 on the Braunschweig Mile. The institute’s presentation will focus on the COAD® process, a plasma process developed at Fraunhofer IST for the controlled adjustment of adhesion properties on surfaces.

At the accompanying exhibition of the OptecNet Annual Conference 2026, the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST will present new solutions for compact hyperspectral imaging systems that enable complex spectral analyses in extremely small spaces. This is based on integrable interference filters that can be embedded directly into CMOS image sensors, thereby opening up entirely new applications in environmental analysis, agriculture, and industrial quality assurance.

Employees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, as well as their industry partners Rohloff AG and Tantec A/S, were among the finalists at the award ceremony for the 2026 Technology Transfer Award of the Braunschweig Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) on May 20, 2026. They were nominated for the transfer of the COAD® technology, which has been successfully implemented in bicycle component manufacturing. With their selection, the jury recognized the importance of the COAD® process for sustainable and efficient production methods.

On the initiative of the Fraunhofer Institute for Thin Film and Surface Technology IST, the existing partnership with Feng Chia University (FCU) is now being extended to Technische Universität Braunschweig. During a visit by a high-level delegation from FCU to Braunschweig, Professor Angela Ittel, President of TU Braunschweig, and Professor Wei Wang, President of FCU, signed the corresponding cooperation agreement on 18 May 2026.

How can high-current contacts be reliably monitored? The Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST will demonstrate a solution to this question from June 9 to 11, 2026, at Sensor+Test in Nuremberg. In the Condition Monitoring Area (Hall 1, Booth 1-551/2), the institute will present the latest developments in thin-film sensor technology, which enable direct, reliable temperature monitoring in heavily loaded electrical systems.

The Fraunhofer Center for Energy Storage and Systems ZESS present itself for the first time at Battery Show Europe 2026 from June 9 to 11, 2026. Together with other institutes, the center will be represented at the Fraunhofer Battery Alliance booth in Hall 1 (Booth 1-A47). The international trade fair is one of the key platforms for battery technologies, battery systems, and the industrial value chain surrounding energy storage in Europe.

The former Joint Campus Wolfsburg will henceforth be known as WeCampusWOB. With this rebranding, the partners – TU Braunschweig, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, the Fraunhofer Society, Volkswagen, Open Hybrid LabFactory and the City of Wolfsburg – are emphasising the collaborative approach to the campus’s further development into a flagship project for Wolfsburg as a centre of science.

Unplanned machine downtime, quality deviations, or wear-related failures rarely occur without warning signs, yet they often go undetected. The Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST makes exactly these hidden conditions visible: with integrated thin-film sensor technology that measures directly on the component surface. At Sensor+Test 2026 from June 9 to 11 in Nuremberg, the institute will demonstrate how condition monitoring can be fundamentally improved as a result.

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.