Media release from the Thuringian Ministry of Economic Affairs,
Science, and Digital Society
June 17, 2024
Institute conducts research into sustainable polymer materials - Tiefensee: Thuringia to become a leading battery research location - Federal and state governments secure long-term funding
The location of the new Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications (HIPOLE) was officially opened today. The facility, which is jointly run by the Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry (CEEC) at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Center Berlin for Materials and Energy (HZB), will be based at the CEEC Application Center on Lessingstraße in Jena. Here, HIPOLE will develop materials and storage technologies needed for the energy transition. Starting in 2028, the research facility will receive up to €5.5 million in annual funding from the federal government (90 percent) and the state (10 percent). During the start-up phase, the state will contribute to the annual funding, provide special financing totaling €10.5 million until 2027, and make building and equipment infrastructure worth €11 million available. The founding director and spokesperson for HIPOLE is the head of the CEEC, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schubert.
"Today marks another major step toward our goal of developing Thuringia into a leading location for battery research and production," said Science Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee at the opening ceremony. In the future, Thuringia will be able to cover the entire value chain, from basic and applied research to the further establishment of production companies and start-ups to battery recycling. "HIPOLE shows ways in which stationary storage systems can be produced without rare earths and hazardous substances. Only then will a real breakthrough for our ambitious climate targets be possible," said Tiefensee.
The establishment of the institute was approved by the Senate of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers (HGF) in June 2023 following a joint application by CEEC and HZB. The establishment of a new Helmholtz Institute will expand the presence of the Helmholtz Association, Germany's largest scientific organization, in Thuringia. To date, only the Helmholtz Institute Jena (HI Jena), a branch of the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, and the Institute for Data Science of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which also belongs to the Helmholtz Association, are located in the Free State.
The considerable efforts made by the Free State of Thuringia since 2014 in establishing the CEEC also contributed significantly to the founding of HIPOLE, Tiefensee continued. "With over 23 million euros in research funding from the state, considerable expertise has been built up here in the field of energy storage. That is now paying off. The new Helmholtz facility will create a battery research center that will have an impact far beyond Jena and at the same time be deeply rooted in the scientific community and entrepreneurial ecosystem of the region. Including the financing of building and equipment costs, the federal government, the state, and scientific foundations (Ernst Abbe and Carl Zeiss Foundations) have supported the CEEC with a total of more than €60 million in recent years, with support from ERDF funds.
Even before the new HIPOLE Institute was founded, the two applicants, CEEC and HZB, had been working closely together. At the end of 2019, the two institutions established a "Joint Lab for Polymers for Energy Storage and Conversion." Since 2020, there have been collaborations on individual projects. The specific goal of the new institute is to conduct research into polymer materials for new energy technologies. To achieve this, HIPOLE combines polymer chemistry, materials science, state-of-the-art analytical methods, and artificial intelligence with world-leading expertise in polymer-based energy storage, photovoltaics, and sustainable chemistry.