Continued success for TU Graz competence centres

Following a successful interim evaluation, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) has extended two of TU Graz’s flagship centers under the COMET programme, while the provinces of Styria and Vienna will provide further funding. The province of Tyrol also partly funds the LEC. “TU Graz is Austria’s leading university in the COMET programme, and its involvement helps to secure around 1,000 jobs in the country. The funding extension for the Know-Center and LEC – two stand-out K1 Centres – will enable us to continue the successful partnership between science and industry in the emerging fields of engine research and data science for four more years,” commented TU Graz Rector Harald Kainz. CBmed – the K1 Centre for Biomarker Research at the Medical University of Graz, in which TU Graz holds a stake – has also been extended for four more years. The funding period for the K1 Centres that began in 2015 will now end in December 2022.

On track to map the data ecosystem

The Know-Center focuses on generating value for business and science from large amounts of data, as well as developing data-driven business models in support of enterprises in Austria and abroad. During the newly extended funding period, Austria’s leading research institute for data-driven business and big data analytics will expand its research focus to the subjects of data management and data security. The data-driven business research field is increasingly concentrating on the development of data platforms and custom data-based business models. Stefanie Lindstaedt, Head of the Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science at TU Graz and CEO of the Know-Center explained: “By expanding the scope of our research, we are in a position to map the entire tech stack across the data value chain. Combined with our comprehensive expertise, this enables us to give businesses even more targeted support with the implementation of data-driven solutions, business models and data platforms.”
This research area is part of TU Graz’s Information, Communication and Computing field of expertise.

Sustainable large-engine technology for tomorrow’s world

The Large Engines Competence Center specialises in developing sustainable large-engine technology for energy and transport systems, with the aim of reducing emissions of CO₂ and airborne pollutants and promoting flexible, dependable engine design concepts. It focuses primarily on devising revolutionary drive concepts for marine applications, such as ship engines. Research into digital engines and integrated systems will be added for the funding period ending in late-2022. Andreas Wimmer, Deputy Head of the Institute of Internal Combustion Engines and Thermodynamics at TU Graz and CEO of the LEC K1 Centre, has set a clear objective for the current funding period: “We will increasingly be looking at integrating digitalisation strategies to achieve high-efficiency engine operation and even stronger overall systems. This will enable us to develop low-emission solutions for the energy and transport sectors, in partnership with industrial technology leaders.” This research area is part of the Mobility & Production field of expertise at TU Graz.

TU Graz: Austria’s leading university in the COMET programme

Most of Austria’s competence centres and K projects are based in Styria. TU Graz is involved in all of these, in many cases as the lead scientific facility. The university is Austria’s number-one higher education institute in COMET, with 29 projects to its name. Of these, TU Graz holds stakes in the managing bodies of 13 initiatives. Such interests are a mainstay of the university’s partnerships with business and other scientific institutes, as well as a reflection of its entrepreneurial spirit. The Austrian government’s Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies (COMET) programme promotes the establishment of competence centres, the centrepiece of which are high-quality research programmes jointly devised by industry and science.