Fraunhofer Annual Report 2022

Key figures for 2022: 
18 Spin-offs | 4 shareholdings

The agriculture of the future begins in space

Data from space will help secure food supplies on Earth and save water in the process: This data will come from a fleet of microsatellites, each the size of a shoe box, that monitor the surface temperature of our planet. Their measurements are accurate to within 50 meters and can provide information on changes in plant health, and enable more efficient irrigation of agricultural land and more precise crop yield predictions. With this information, ConstellR is making huge strides toward a form of agriculture that is adapted to climate change. In March 2022, the technology proved its functionality when the measuring instrument LisR (Long-wave Infrared Sensing demonstratoR) was installed and put into operation on the International Space Station. The data that it has been receiving from and transmitting to Earth since April last year has laid the foundations for a number of pilot projects that ConstellR is currently working on. The development of LisR was led by the Freiburg-based Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach- Institut, EMI, in collaboration with its spin-off, ConstellR. The measuring instrument consists of a data processing unit and a thermal infrared camera with compact upstream free-form mirror optics that can be used to determine the land surface temperature of the Earth from space. The free-form optics were developed and manufactured by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF and its spin-off SPACEOPTIX. As a prototype, LisR’s functionality was put to the test and it passed with flying colors, allowing ConstellR to raise 10 million US dollars in seed capital by the end of 2022. Two ConstellR microsatellites will be launched into orbit in mid-2024, and more will follow in 2025.

Key figures for 2022

7,414 active patent families | 443 invention disclosure reports | 375 patent applications | € 160 million of license-fee revenue

Bowing out with license in hand

In 2022, the Fraunhofer spin-off Arioso Systems was sold to Bosch Sensortec. In 2019, the parent institute, the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS, and its spin-off, Arioso Systems, concluded a licensing agreement for the technology that it is based on — and this agreement is still in effect. It began with Nanoscopic Electrostatic Drive (NED), a powertrain technology for micromechanic systems that made the innovative sound transducer possible. To achieve this, the novel MEMS-based NED bending actuators were integrated into MEMS silicon chips, allowing for the production of miniaturized hearables. The advantage of silicon technology is the high extent to which it can be miniaturized. In addition, the electrostatic drive is also energy-efficient.

The NED technology was developed through a collaboration between Fraunhofer IPMS and the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. The basic patent for the loudspeaker was granted in 2018, and the associated patent portfolio steadily expanded. In 2019, Arioso Systems GmbH was founded as a spin-off of Fraunhofer IPMS, with the aim of bringing the miniaturized headphones and micro-loudspeaker technology to the market. The spin-off got its start as a project of the Fraunhofer-Zukunftsstiftung (Fraunhofer Future Foundation). In the 2020 round of seed financing, which included premium investors such as the High-Tech Gründerfonds, Arioso Systems GmbH received € 2.6 million in venture capital. The exit occurred in 2022 when the spin-off was sold entirely to the large German company Bosch Sensortec GmbH, a international leader in the industry and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH. 

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Wireless headphones with MEMS speakers for the Internet of Voice based on the energy-efficient transducer principle.

Key figures for 2022:

1,235 standardization activities

Regulations for artificial intelligence in cars

There is hardly any other field of technology where artificial intelligence is as safety-critical as it is in autonomous vehicles. There is already a standard for functional safety, ISO 26262, while ISO 21448 focuses on the question of whether the system’s design is adequate for a specific situation. Many Fraunhofer institutes have already had representatives in standardization organizations in the automotive sector for years. For example, the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS is shaping the future of safe autonomous driving as part of important bodies such as ISO, AUTOSAR, 5GAA and ASAM. One key concern here is the safe use of artificial intelligence, which is the focus of ISO/AWI PAS 8800. Fraunhofer IKS is acting as the international coordinator for the development of this standard. Fraunhofer is also involved with other standardization organizations that work in areas such as future software architecture for vehicles (AUTOSAR) and the safe use of third-party software such as Linux operating systems in vehicles (ISO/AWI PAS 8926). This will allow knowledge from Fraunhofer research to be codified and used in future vehicles.

Cybersecurity Training Lab for energy and water supply networks

Companies in Germany sustain € 203 billion in damages per year due to stolen IT equipment and data, espionage and sabotage. This figure comes from a study conducted in August 2022 by the industry association Bitkom in collaboration with the German federal intelligence services (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz). When critical infrastructures such as energy and water supply networks are attacked, the material damage also causes enormous harm to society. It is becoming increasingly difficult to secure supplies: For example, more and more decentralized facilities for data collection and transmission are coming into operation, and the generation, distribution, storage, and use of energy is being controlled by IT-based systems. There are also geopolitical interests involved here. In order to prevent cyberattacks from damaging critical infrastructures, the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB has established a Cybersecurity Training Lab specifically for energy and water supply networks at its Ilmenau and Görlitz locations. Here, scientists are using the findings from their research to develop new methods and procedures for detecting and averting cyberattacks. The applications and prototypes they create are transferred to hardware platforms in the training lab to be tested and validated in a realistic environment. Only then can they be added to training courses or incorporated into the training lab’s cybersecurity assessments. In particular, the intensive technical courses on the mobile training platform have attendees ranging from employees to security personnel at energy and water supply networks.

Virtuvirtual tour of the Cybersecurity Training Lab

Key figures for 2022

65 percent of employees that left Fraunhofer in 2022 were switching to a career in industry (according to exit interviews)

Training future managers

An important aspect of Fraunhofer’s mission is ensuring that scientific staff in particular can complete their management training during their employment at the organization. Fraunhofer has a 10 percent turnover rate in its scientific section. As part of the exit interviews, departing employees were asked where they were planning to go next in their careers. It was found that two thirds of departing employees were switching to careers in industry; around half of these were taking up management positions.

 carrers at Fraunhofer

Key figures for 2022

No figures are available in this area (yet). These can currently be seen in other transfer paths.

Living laboratories for geothermal systems and georesources

Around a quarter of Germany’s heating demand could be covered by climate-neutral deep geothermal systems, according to a road map by researchers at Fraunhofer and the Helmholtz Association. A shift to geothermal energy could be particularly effective in North Rhine-Westphalia, as the state is home to the largest district heating networks in Europe that still use waste heat from coal-fired power plants. In order to use renewable energy for district heating, Germany must tap into the large underground thermal water reservoir in Northwestern Europe, as the Netherlands, Belgium and France have already done. The TRUDI living laboratory, run by the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Systems IEG, is helping to test technologies under realistic conditions, and then quickly and safely scale them up for market launch. In the Fraunhofer Metropolitan Laboratory for Connected Underground Systems and Energy System Transformation TRUDI, heat sources such as solar thermal energy and waste heat are connected to high-capacity thermal storage facilities such as flooded coal mines and high-temperature heat pumps to create heat networks for large cities such as Bochum, which can serve as role models for other locations. In 2022, following a multi-stage selection process by Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier GmbH, the way was cleared for a Fraunhofer living laboratory focusing on deep geothermal systems in the Rhineland region. This could create a large research infrastructure for geothermal energy that is the first of its kind in Europe. At the planned site in Weisweiler, Fraunhofer IEG aims to conduct research with industry partners into areas such as georesources, borehole technologies, exploration and heat storage.

Key figures for 2022

According to a media engagement analysis, Fraunhofer appeared in 11,026 articles; of these, around 60 percent were initiated by Fraunhofer itself. They were viewed 5,511.2 million times.

Participation and co-creation

In addition to the traditional communication channels, citizen participation is becoming a more important aspect of science communication at Fraunhofer. Various Fraunhofer institutes have gained experience in the area of citizen science. In order to expand these activities in a structured way, an internal working group of experienced stakeholders from the Fraunhofer institutes was founded. The group is advised and supported by the Public Formats and Initiatives department at headquarters. The Center for Responsible Research and Innovation (CeRRI), a department of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, is also involved. This department can bring to bear its many years of experience and methodological expertise on the topic of citizen science. In addition to integrating citizen science into its own organization, Fraunhofer is also seeking to engage more actively in dialogue with external stakeholders. For example, Fraunhofer has representatives in the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s discussion group on participation.

The participation of ordinary citizens is also key when it comes to more efficiently harnessing the potential of digitalization for rural regions. For projects in this area, the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE supports cities and regions through a co-creation approach. This participatory method means that groups such as citizens, administrators or industry stakeholders are actively involved in collecting ideas, defining requirements, and evaluating strategies and digital solutions that have already been put in place. Fraunhofer IESE’s best-known examples of this approach are the Digital Villages (“Digitale Dörfer”) and Smart.Rural.Regions (“Smarte.Land.Regionen”) projects.