Inno.CNT: Materials technology of the next generation

As an alliance of around 80 renowned partners from science and industry, the Inno.CNT initiative has the job of driving the development of carbon nanotubes (CNT). CNTs have the potential to open up completely new dimensions in materials technology and to add a unique quality to numerous products and applications.

The Inno.CNT Innovation Alliance is a tight research network consisting of around 80 reputable partners from science and industry. It is part of the German government's high-tech strategy and is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in its "Materials Innovations for Industry and Society" program.

The starting point for the alliance was a resolution adopted by the Federal Government in 2006, formulating a high-tech strategy for Germany as a location for industrial production. The strategy defined 17 areas to focus on in the future, and encouraged industry and science to pool their strengths and resources.
One of the 17 areas identified under the high-tech strategy was materials research, which is specifically sponsored in the BMBF's WING program (Materials Innovations for Industry and Society). Another was nanotechnology. This gave rise to the Innovation Alliance CNT, which set out to tap the economic potential of carbon nanotubes.

In all, Inno.CNT consists of 18 projects. Apart from basic research, the Innovation Alliance CNT is focused on practical applications in the fields of energy and the environment, mobility and lightweight construction. It is precisely here that the major social and economic challenges lie: from climate protection and energy supply through safety and health to mobility. Only if science and industry work together will it be possible to find satisfactory solutions.

The close networking of all 18 projects enables the entire know-how of the partners to be utilized more effectively and generate valuable synergies. In particular, linking up the crossover technologies with the fields of application provides an optimum framework for combining, within the project cluster, basic research with specific application requirements and market needs, and for developing economically promising solutions.

The initiative has been designed to run for a period of four years. Work on some of the projects began in the second quarter of 2008.