EU funding committee visits BTU

The so-called Joint Monitoring Committee of the EU funds of the state of Brandenburg evaluates and accompanies the implementation of the programs of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) in the funding period 2014 to 2022. Together, these three funds support the state of Brandenburg with approximately 2.8 billion euros in EU funding for seven years.

The committee, which has now met for two days in Cottbus to ring in the new funding period, consists of around 50 representatives of Brandenburg's economic, social and environmental partners, the state ministries, Brandenburg's universities, the EU Commission and the federal government.

According to the monitoring committee, "We deliberately chose the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg as the conference venue because here we can observe the development of one of the most dynamic science locations in Germany."

The committee received an overview of the diverse activities of the only technical university in the state of Brandenburg and the EU funding from Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Hübner, Vice President for Research and Transfer: "Thanks to the funding from the three EU structural funds, we have been able to implement about 140 projects at the BTU in the current funding phase. Almost half of the funds are directly related to topics of the European Green Deal and have been used for projects on energy efficiency and climate neutrality."

These include a hydrogen test vehicle with measurement technology from the Department of Automotive Engineering and Drivetrains, which the committee members then visited, as well as the GABRIEL project from the Department of Hybrid Manufacturing for research into holistic, hybrid-electric drive components for aviation, in which Rolls-Royce is also involved. The Model Factory at the Innovation Center Modern Industry Brandenburg - a contact point for small and medium-sized enterprises that supports them in getting innovations in the field of automation and digitization off the ground - as well as the start-up service and the project "University Transfer Office at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg" also gave the Joint Monitoring Committee insights into their work.