Press / Newsroom

The next stage in the evolution of technology is coming up: Artificial intelligence is poised to turn robots into all-around self-learners, helping out in industry, logistics, nursing, and private households. Will smart machines radically reshape our lives – and especially our working lives – not long from now?

The collapse of the Carola Bridge in Dresden has demonstrated how important it is to identify infrastructure weaknesses at an early stage. Indeed, roads and bridges, railways and power lines in Germany are showing their age, and some of them have significant structural defects. According to the latest condition survey from 2022, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV), 7,112 kilometers of highway, 8,000 highway bridges and 17,630 kilometers of rail are classified as in need of repair. Innovative Fraunhofer solutions can help simplify, expedite, and cut costs of maintenance, analysis and servicing work − an overview.

During this year of back-to-back elections, reality is catching up with the warnings experts have been making for years: deepfakes and disinformation have been supercharged by artificial intelligence. With fakes now so convincing, more and more people are asking themselves: Can I believe my eyes and ears?

Sometimes there’s too much, sometimes too little: Water, the most important factor in our survival, doesn’t make it easy for us. How can we ensure an adequate water supply even amid climate challenges?

Climate change is proceeding faster than expected, the energy transition more slowly than had been hoped. Referenzfabrik.H2 aims to accelerate the production of hydrogen systems and open up new business fields for industries such as the automotive sector, in a push Fraunhofer is calling “Fit4H2.”

Rehabilitating the prime suspect responsible for climate change: More and more technological innovations aim to harness CO2 as a sustainable source of carbon.

Hendrik Wüst, minister-president of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is viewed as a potential candidate for chancellor. In this interview, the 48-year-old calls for reliable prospects for science, research, and industry.

Heavy objects are a burden on the environment. Making heavy things lighter saves energy, conserves resources, promotes sustainability while improving the function and safety of products at the same time. Fraunhofer is developing a variety of innovative approaches.

There’s a 60 billion euro gap in his budget, he’s had to put an emergency stop to the debt brake and a new era is looming in the world of interest rates: In this interview, German finance minister Christian Lindner makes a case for investing in the future. As he puts it, the very fact that so much has been left undone is what “gives us such wide scope for shaping the future.”

Toxic PFAS are endangering our water. Now there are plans to ban them in Europe. This presents the industrial sector with major problems because these “forever chemicals” are essential to many products and processes.