The state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG) agreed upon and, thus, cleared the way: the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH will be integrated into the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, becoming an individual Fraunhofer institute by the year 2018. That was declared in the course of a press conference on June 25 in the ministry of education, science, further education and culture by minister Doris Ahnen and Prof. Dieter Prätzel-Wolters representing the FhG and in the presence of IMM CEO Prof. Michael Maskos, president of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz Prof. Georg Krausch and the managing director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT), Prof. Peter Elsner.

„For us at IMM this is an exciting development that proves: we did an excellent job during the last years“, Maskos is delighted. Pursuing well proven strengths and identifying new trends at an early stage have been the guarantors of success for IMM since its foundation. IMM will continue counting on it`s top performers from the fields of local and mobile energy technology, continuous chemical process technology, microfluidic analytical systems as well as medical probes and technical sensors. By establishing the Microtechnology for Nanoparticles (Micro4Nano) department IMM will be able to continue developing solutions which are of relevance to society in the future. „IMM has an impressive research portfolio“, Elsner sums up.

As a result of the integration all partners will benefit from an intensive technology exchange, new possibilities of cooperation, and an expanded infrastructure. „By integrating IMM the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft extends its core competencies and its portfolio for a range of customer branches", Prätzel-Wolters agrees.

„Taking this step all signs strictly point to growth. This as well means that we can maintain highly qualified jobs and provide new jobs in the medium term”, says Maskos.

During the period of transition the research and development institute which was founded in 1990 will be actively accompanied by the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) in Karlsruhe-Pfinztal.

„Not only for IMM, but also for the city of Mainz as a city of science and for Rhineland-Palatinate research this means a great success. The establishment of the Fraunhofer brand, so far represented only in Kaiserslautern and Remagen, finally is a clear proof for the scientific and technological capabilities that characterize our research facilities and universities“, Ahnen emphasizes.