The Rhenish mining area is to become a model region for a sustainable and competitive bioeconomy. But where do the required raw materials come from? What products can be made from biomass? How do innovative ideas make it onto the market? These are the questions being addressed by 37 doctoral students in the "AUFBRUCH" graduate cluster, which was launched at the beginning of July with a kick-off event.

The aim of "AUFBRUCH" is to enable young scientists to help shape the future bioeconomy of the Rhenish mining area. To achieve this, three universities, three universities of applied sciences, including The Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR), as well as a research facility and an innovation network have joined forces across disciplines for the first time to support the doctoral students. In addition, 150 Bachelor's and Master's students receive a supervised apprenticeship in the cluster. The project, led by RWTH Aachen University, is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with 12.5 million euros. Around 905,000 euros of this will go to the HSNR.

In order to overcome the challenges of bioeconomic structural change, complex problems are solved on an interdisciplinary basis. The fields of innovation worked on by the doctoral students not only promote bioeconomic research, but also consider ways in which the results can be implemented economically. This breaks down the boundaries between disciplines, stakeholders and fields of expertise. The partners are pooling expertise from the fields of biotechnology, chemistry, process engineering, logistics, Business Administration and Economics, social sciences and spatial planning.

"The Hochschule Niederrhein is participating with three sub-projects. The projects are not only cross-faculty, but also cross-university. We are convinced that our research training group will make an important contribution to the development of the bioeconomy in the Rhenish mining area," says Professor Dr. Holger Beckmann, who is coordinating the project at the HSNR.

Three HSNR institutes are involved in the graduate cluster: the Institute of Business Process Management and IT (GEMIT), the Institute for Coatings and Surface Chemistry (ILOC) and the Niederrhein Institute for Regional and Structural Research (NIERS). Doctoral students Maximilian Hummel (GEMIT) and Florian Grebe (NIERS) are working within the cluster on process optimization for the efficient use of biogenic raw materials and are also investigating the regional economic prerequisites and consequences of a bioeconomy in the Rhenish mining area.

"As part of the 'Intelligent Logistics' innovation area, we are researching, developing and implementing processes for converting domestic biomass into carboxylic acid esters, which are to be used as environmentally friendly lubricants and plasticizers. The focus here is particularly on the efficient use of raw materials and the reduction of environmental pollution through optimized process chains," explains Maximilian Hummel.

The innovation area "Flexible use of new raw material potentials", in which the ILOC institute is involved, is developing new recycling concepts for rubber in order to transform linear value chains into a circular economy. Enzymatic and chemical depolymerization will be used to gently process rubber molecules and use them to produce new polymers. "This promotes resource conservation and offers the polymer industry a sustainable unique selling point, especially for companies in the Rhineland region," says PhD student Aleksandr Lobanov.

Another focus of the cluster is on business start-ups: The young people are to take the knowledge gained during their apprenticeship with them for their own start-up. Here, the doctoral students are supported by the graduate cluster throughout the entire start-up process.

Info box:

Project name: Graduate Cluster "AUFBRUCH - Shaping the transformation to a sustainable regional bioeconomy"
Project duration: 01.04.2024, 4 years
Project volume: 12.5 million euros, of which around: 905,000 euros for the HSNR
Sponsored by: Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Project partners: Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Dortmund University of Technology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Hochschule Niederrhein, CLIB - Cluster industrielle Biotechnologie e.V., Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH