"I am very pleased about the award. It shows the strong position of our institute in the research market and confirms how important the contributions we make to our clients are. Current developments in society make it clear how crucial application-oriented research is for shaping our future, from coping with the Covid-19 pandemic and making the energy transition a success to unlocking the opportunities of digitization. We support companies in being competitive and resilient through innovation," says Prof. Dr. Erica Lilleodden, Director of the Fraunhofer IMWS.

The institute's nearly 350 employees offer excellent know-how in microstructure-based diagnostics and technology development for innovative materials, components and systems, thus enabling the accelerated development of new materials and improved resource efficiency. For partners in industry and public clients, they research questions of functionality and application behavior as well as reliability, safety and durability of materials used in markets such as electronics, plastics, the chemical industry, energy technology and photovoltaics, the healthcare sector or automotive engineering and transport technology.

Since 2019, the Fraunhofer IMWS has consistently made it into the ranking of Germany's most innovative companies and once again achieved the top rating of five stars in the area of "Energy and Environment". Also included is the Fraunhofer CSP, which is jointly operated by the Fraunhofer IMWS and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. Both institutions also received five stars in each of the individual subcategories, in which the number of recommendations, areas of innovation and reasons for recommendation were assessed. The decisive factor for the rating was the statements of more than 3,500 experts who were surveyed for the study. A total of 470 companies and research institutions from 20 sectors were included in the ranking of "Germany's most innovative companies 2022".