Karlsruhe Institute Of Technology Carries Out Research For A Sustainable Society
Decisive steps towards new batteries and CO 2 -neutral flying, extracting carbon from the air or developing new types of perovskite solar cells: At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the year 2022 was a year of strong research results on the way to a sustainable society. KIT scientists also received a number of prizes and awards for their work – and the total number of professorships at KIT has increased. The KIT Annual Report 2022 now summarizes the successes and highlights in research, teaching and innovation.
One of the highlights presented in the report is a new test facility in the NECOC project: Here, researchers from KIT produce CO 2 from the greenhouse gasfine-grained carbon (“carbon black”) as an important industrial raw material. Another are novel solar cells based on perovskites, innovative materials with a special crystal structure that have set a world record with an efficiency of 25 percent. In tandem with other silicon solar cells, they produce renewable electricity on a comparatively small area. KIT researchers want to produce kerosene, the fuel for aviation, in two international projects started in 2022. In the POLiS Cluster of Excellence, a high-tech research facility went into operation that can assemble batteries and their individual components automatically and try out as many material combinations in one day as a person can manage in their entire working life.
Proven cutting-edge research: prestigious awards and major research projects
KIT’s research strength is represented by a number of awards that top KIT researchers received in 2022, including an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship and two Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prizes. Both awards are among the most important and most valuable German research awards. There is also a state research award. In addition, a total of eleven grants from the European Research Council ERC and two new special research areas from the German Research Foundation (DFG) are available for the successful acquisition of renowned research projects. There is also a Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize – the most important award for young researchers in Germany. The strength of the promotion of young scientists at KIT is also demonstrated by the total of 13 newly approved junior research groups in 2022.
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research and UNESCO recognized KIT’s commitment to sustainability and the variety of its sustainability-related educational offerings and activities with the “National Prize – Education for Sustainable Development”.
Increasing total number of professorships – positive trend in the proportion of women
Decisive steps towards new batteries and CO 2 -neutral flying, extracting carbon from the air or developing new types of perovskite solar cells: At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the year 2022 was a year of strong research results on the way to a sustainable society. KIT scientists also received a number of prizes and awards for their work – and the total number of professorships at KIT has increased. The KIT Annual Report 2022 now summarizes the successes and highlights in research, teaching and innovation.
The goal of the 100 professorship program is to make cutting-edge research even more efficient and agile within ten years (2019 to 2029).at KIT. In order to achieve this goal, KIT appointed a total of 35 professors in 2022 (including 22 W3, one W2 and twelve W1 professorships). This means that not only the total number of professors has risen to over 400, but also the number of junior and tenure-track professors as well as the proportion of women, which is now 17.9 percent (for comparison: in 2019 the proportion of women was 14.7 percent). The first two of the new “professorship tandems” at KIT (KIT Real-World Lab Professorship), which are also part of the 100 professorship program, have also been filled. As the first tandem, a computer scientist and an architect are testing a unique transdisciplinary approach together in the “Digital Accessibility” real-world laboratory.
With the aim of becoming even more diverse and stronger, KIT adopted its diversity strategy in 2022 and signed a diversity charter. At the same time, equal opportunities for women and men is also an important goal.
Sustainable development
The KIT also contributes to sustainable development through its own actions. For this purpose, a new department was created in the KIT Presidium in 2022: First Vice President for the future topics of digitalization and sustainability, which are inextricably linked at KIT, is Professor Kora Kristof, who moved to KIT from the Federal Environment Agency.