Our business units (departments) are oriented to materials-related research and development topics and the impacts upon a product's life cycle. In each phase the Fraunhofer IWM provides sustainable and innovative solutions for product and technology development processes. Each business unit has a clearly defined contextual focus, these being Materials Design, Manufacturing Processes, Tribology, Component Safety and Lightweight Construction and Assessment of Materials, Lifetime Concepts. The Fraunhofer IWM business units address central research themes which are related to energy and resource efficiency.
The Fraunhofer IWM budget consists of an operational budget and an investment budget. The Fraunhofer IWM’s operational budget has grown slightly since the previous year and amounted to 21.7 million euro; the investment budget was 2.3 million euros in 2019.
The operational budget consists of all personnel and material expenses which are financed through external revenue and institutional funding (basic funding). The industrial revenue covered 36.6 percent of the operational budget in 2019.
Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM