Lusatia is set to become a hub for the battery industry of the future: with the launch of the collaborative project “HERES – BTU Centre of Excellence for High-Tech and Energy Materials and Their Recycling in Senftenberg”, BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg is establishing a research platform – unique in eastern Germany – dedicated to the sustainable recycling of materials essential to technology.

As part of the General Studies module (FÜS), students, under the guidance of Prof. Klaus Birkhofer, examined the global decline in biodiversity, human-wildlife conflicts and the country’s colonial past.

How can endangered craft knowledge be preserved? BTU researchers and regional initiatives are focussing on personal stories: At the blueprint weekend in the Wendish-German Museum of Local History in Jänschwalde/Janšojce, the storytelling café becomes a living archive - and brings generations into dialogue.

12 hours of live power from the sternchen.fm studio: for International Women's Day, the BTU radio project is broadcasting a special 12-hour live programme. Under the title "Feminist Radio Day", the free radio station for Cottbus and Lusatia will take over the programme from 12 noon to midnight - with voices, sounds and perspectives from science, activism, culture and the community.

BTU researchers are investigating how mower conditioners affect insect diversity in agricultural grassland in a new project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Heat, heavy rain, floods: extreme weather situations are on the rise - and with them the burden on emergency services and control centres. The AIRCIS research project in the Lusatia model region, funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV), shows how emergency structures can be made more crisis-proof with the help of AI, data-based forecasts and simulation-based planning.

Researchers from BTU and TU Braunschweig have shown that industrial fibre hemp can be grown successfully even under extremely dry and nutrient-poor conditions. The latest study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research, sheds light on the potential of the hemp variety Santhica 27 for sustainable agriculture in sandy soils.

Reducing the environmental impact of global video streaming services is the subject of a new project at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. The three-year project is being funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to the tune of around 332,000 euros.

The highlight of this year's Transfer Day at the BTU was the first presentation of the BTU Transfer Prizes, worth a total of 14,000 euros: The winners are Mesh4U and NMI Technologies. A special prize went to the Energy Innovation Centre (EIZ).

People encounter discrimination in many forms - consciously or unconsciously, in everyday life, in institutions or in their own thought patterns. The two-part event series "Space for Diversity" and "Safer Spaces" will create places for sensitisation and empowerment. Start is Friday, 14 November 2025.