New Analysis Laboratory for the "Ruhr Innovation Lab" to be built in Dortmund

Ina Brandes, Minister for Culture and Science of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said at the handover ceremony: "We are consistently investing the money from the North Rhine-Westphalia Plan for Good Infrastructure in the major topics of the future and the outstanding facilities at our universities. In the globally unique analysis laboratory, scientists are developing sustainable materials that will be found in everyday products in all areas of life. At the same time, we are creating the best working conditions for the researchers of the Ruhr Innovation Lab, the planned excellence network of TU Dortmund University and Ruhr University Bochum. After all, excellent research and teaching require an excellent infrastructure."

Cooperation within the University Alliance Ruhr
The new joint laboratory is based at the TU Dortmund University's Department of Physics. The Dortmund physicists are not only cooperating with RUB working groups in the Ruhr Innovation Lab, but also in the Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems of the University Alliance Ruhr. In this Research Center, which is also funded by the state, RUB, TU Dortmund University and the University of Duisburg-Essen are pooling their top international research in order to develop high-performance functional materials, understand their basic properties, optimize their production processes and ultimately bring them into application. In future, these groups will be able to use the new laboratory for their research.

"North Rhine-Westphalia Plan for Good Infrastructure"
Around 45 million euros from the state government's "North Rhine-Westphalia Plan for Good Infrastructure" investment package will be used to build the laboratory. TU Dortmund University is contributing its own share of 4.6 million euros. Existing infrastructure is to be used sustainably. As Dortmund's DELTA electron storage ring facility will be decommissioned as planned at the end of 2026 after more than 30 years of successful use, the building can be redeveloped for future research tasks. Ten new individual laboratories will be created here, whose large-scale equipment and facilities will be available to the Ruhr Innovation Lab working groups in Dortmund and Bochum.

New materials with special functionalities
Scientists from TU Dortmund University and Ruhr University Bochum are working together to drive innovation in materials science in one of the Ruhr Innovation Lab's four excellent research areas: they are using data-driven methods and artificial intelligence to develop new materials with special functionalities. These are urgently needed, for example as low-loss superconductors or for energy conversion processes in photovoltaics. Materials that are particularly promising in the prediction models are elaborately synthesized and then analysed using laser spectroscopy.

The new analysis laboratory will enable such a high throughput that the results can be fed directly back into the refined prediction and adapted synthesis. This creates a continuous "feedback loop" through which the materials can quickly achieve a quality that makes them relevant for further basic scientific investigations and, above all, for applications.

From basic research to application
"In the Ruhr Innovation Lab, we are jointly planning research infrastructures and combining the strengths of both universities in the field of materials science in order to bring novel materials from basic research to application more quickly. For digital technologies, for example, our society needs new semiconductors made from raw materials that are readily available on the global market in the long term," said Prof. Dr. Martin Paul, Rector of Ruhr University. "The new analytical laboratory can make an important contribution here. It will provide our scientists with an internationally outstanding range of laser analysis methods. External users could also benefit from the new facilities in future, which we would like to develop into a European reference laboratory in the future," said Prof. Dr. Manfred Bayer, Rector of TU Dortmund University.

More information:
To the Ruhr Innovation Lab

To the Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems