"Making innovations trustworthy and socially acceptable"

We are living in an era of complex technological, ecological and social challenges. How does the university respond to this, Professor Hofmann? Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann: The current situation in the USA illustrates what can happen when elite universities become too disconnected from society at large. I am convinced that, in the future, universities will have to increasingly align their academic ambitions with the needs of society. Universities that are only concerned with themselves will hardly be able to fulfill their social mandate. In other words, only those universities that address people's expectations, questions, and concerns during the innovation process will develop the creative output that is expected of them. This requires a holistic rethinking, shifting the focus from technology to society: "Society-Centered Research & Innovation." This means we are increasingly focusing on innovations that are responsible, trustworthy, and socially acceptable. To achieve this, we combine disciplinary competencies, apply design intelligence, and develop new solutions to complex challenges that cannot be addressed in siloed thought processes. The Munich Design Institute (MDI) is a central measure at TUM for achieving this goal. What added value do approaches from design research offer? Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann: The Munich Design Institute is at the heart of this shift. As an Integrative Research Institute, it creates connections across schools to tap into transdisciplinary innovation potential. It integrates an understanding of behavioral science, manufacturing techniques, product development, technical design, rapid prototyping, and more to develop the creative abilities of students, researchers, and aspiring entrepreneurs. It also creates new, valuable effects on the design of technologies, products, software, processes, and change trajectories. Prof. Annette Diefenthaler: Design as a discipline actively shapes interdisciplinary collaboration - with a broad variety of methods and collaborative processes. At the MDI, we bring together designers, industry partners, citizens and researchers to co-create solutions for pressing challenges we face. We use design to create a shared understanding of complex topics for people of different educational levels, cultural or socio-economic backgrounds and of all ages. This is particularly important given the rapid development of technology which can lead to fear and anxiety, leading people to look backwards rather than forward. With creative imagination, we can design vivid, tangible future scenarios. We call this future literacy: the ability to develop multiple options for our future and make decisions based on that. This enables a variety of people to participate in the design process. The sense of agency and self-efficacy creates hope that a livable future is possible.

BioLabs|TUM launched to foster start-ups

Located in a refurbished 1,800-square-meter facility, BioLabs|TUM will offer fully equipped laboratories and office space for 15–20 start-ups. The hub is designed to accelerate the development of breakthrough therapies by connecting scientific talent with venture capital and pharmaceutical expertise. “We are thrilled to announce this collaboration with TUM Venture Labs and Lilly to launch BioLabs|TUM in Munich – marking a major milestone in expanding our innovation ecosystem in Germany,” said Johannes Fruehauf, MD, PhD, Founder & CEO of BioLabs. “With world-class science, top academic institutions, and rising investor interest, Munich is the ideal launchpad for the next generation of biotech entrepreneurs.” The collaboration brings together BioLabs’ proven coworking lab model, TUM Venture Labs’ academic innovation engine, and Lilly’s global R&D and venture capital reach. Start-ups selected for the program will benefit from tailored programming, strategic guidance, and access to Lilly’s scientific experts.

Hardly any social skills in educational programs for young children

Education in early childhood can impart skills that are important throughout life, as numerous international studies have shown. Both for the cohesion of societies and for today's professional world, it is important that children learn to cooperate, to develop a basic understanding of tolerance and respect and to solve problems together even before they start school. In turn, structural conditions, especially the socio-economic circumstances in which children grow up, are of great importance for educational success.  However, researchers at the 91��ɫ, the University of Luxembourg and the Autonomous University of Barcelona repeatedly noticed that social skills – to which the researchers also refer as citizenship skills, as they are crucial for the functioning of a society – and educational prerequisites were rarely or not at all included in early childhood education programs. They have therefore investigated for the first time whether one can draw a global picture of the fundamental attitudes on which these programs are based. The research team analyzed more than 90 official documents from 53 countries on all continents as well as from the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The documents, which span the period from 1999 to 2023, were primarily guidelines, education plans and similar publications that outline fundamental education policy orientations.

Sustainable carbon fibers based on algae

Project coordinator Prof. Thomas Brück, head of the TUM Chair of Synthetic Biotechnology, emphasises: “With the joint GreenCarbon project, we have taken a major step towards sustainable industrial carbon fiber production.” In addition to TUM, the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, the company SGL Carbon, and the aerospace group Airbus are also involved in the consortium, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR).   Novel production process for carbon fibers Carbon fibers are lightweight, yet extremely stable and resistant. In the form of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics, they are used in a wide variety of applications: in aircraft and vehicles, wind turbines, but also in sports equipment, such as bicycles, tennis rackets, and skis. These lightweight materials are made from acrylonitrile, a raw material that has traditionally been obtained mainly from petroleum-based propylene. Researchers at the Werner Siemens Chair of Synthetic Biotechnology at the TUM School of Natural Sciences investigated the extraction of oils from photosynthetically active microalgae. “Through photosynthesis, microalgae bind the greenhouse gas CO2, among other things in the form of algae oils,” explains Prof. Thomas Brück. Glycerine was then extracted from these valuable oils using chemical processes.   Fraunhofer researchers have succeeded in developing a process that can be used to catalytically convert biogenic glycerol into acrylonitrile, the key raw material for carbon fiber production. This process has been developed on a laboratory scale at the Straubing branch of Fraunhofer IGB to such an extent that it is now ready for the next scaling step, industrial application. “We have thus created the conditions for the production of sustainable carbon fibers that have the same high-performance properties as conventionally manufactured carbon fibers,” says Dr. Arne Roth, department head at Fraunhofer IGB.  The production of sustainable carbon fibers was the responsibility of industrial partner SGL Carbon, a global leader specialized in the development and manufacture of carbon-based solutions. The company produced 50k heavy-tow carbon fibers, which consist of bundles of 50,000 individual filaments and are mechanically very stable, in accordance with recognized industry standards. These were used to manufacture carbon fiber-reinforced plastics, known as composite laminates. The European aerospace group Airbus was also involved in the GreenCarbon project as an associate partner. Airbus uses carbon fiber composites as high-performance materials for manufacturing components for aircrafts and helicopters, and investigates processes that enable more sustainable production of these materials from renewable raw materials. Airbus therefore conducted a technology screening and conducted a life-cycle assessment of the various technology options, in particular. Inspired by the good results, Airbus is working on demonstrating the technology for flying vehicles. For instance, the maiden flight of a research helicopter made from carbon fibers from renewable sources took place in 2024, proving the suitability of these technologies for aviation applications. Further research and development needed Building on the promising results of the GreenCarbon project, the partners now want to optimize the technology and bring it into widespread industrial use. According to the researchers, the new manufacturing process can in principle also be used for the sustainable production of acrylic acid, a building block for many polymers that are still produced from fossil raw materials today. “Our GreenCarbon value chain thus offers new potential for the raw materials transition in the chemical industry, especially in the production of carbon-based high-performance materials,” says Brück. The consortium hopes to receive renewed funding for the follow-up project from the BMFTR.

Artificial intelligence in medicine and everyday clinical practice

Beta-Carotene keeps enzymes active under heavy load

Enzymes help wash our clothes, support digestion, and make bread rise. Typically, the more work they are given, the more active they become. But about 20 percent of known enzymes behave differently: when flooded with too many molecules at once, they slow down or even stop functioning entirely. So far, substrate inhibition hasn’t been well understood. Scientists believe it serves as a regulatory mechanism inside cells — but it can also backfire. “Lab experiments with certain drugs suggest that substrate inhibition may affect how medications work,” says Wilfried Schwab, Professor of Biotechnology of Natural Products at TUM. “When drug concentrations are too high, the reaction can slow down.” The same principle can affect efficiency in areas like food production and industrial cleaning.

Therapeutic vaccine for hepatitis B enters first clinical trial

Chronic hepatitis B is an infectious disease, affecting 254 million people worldwide. It significantly increases the risk of liver damage, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Although preventive vaccines and antiviral treatments exist, no curative therapy has been developed to date. Current treatments suppress the virus but require lifelong use and are not universally available. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hepatitis B causes 1.1 million deaths per year.

Breakthrough in Efficiency, Affordability and Sustainability

The aim of the project was to significantly improve the efficiency, economic feasibility and sustainability of this manufacturing process. The project partners have successfully trialled these innovations in five complex industrial demonstrators in the aerospace industry, the energy sector and mechanical engineering. The additive manufacturing (AM) method known as laser-based powder bed fusion of metals is now a core technology for the production of complex metal parts. However, rigid laser beam profiles and insufficient process monitoring often create problems during the melting process, potentially causing material defects and halting production. This results in wastage and increased energy use, driving up production costs and slowing down the production process. The consortium behind the EU project InShaPe took on these challenges and researched a new approach that combines AI-based beam shaping and multispectral imaging.

Nuclear fusion research using neutrons from FRM II

Nuclear fusion research aims to harness the energy released when atomic nuclei fuse. Two main approaches are currently being pursued: magnetic fusion and inertial confinement fusion. Fusion power plants are still in the research and development stage, but they could potentially help meet humanity's growing energy needs in the future. In addition to TUM's Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Neutron Source (FRM II), the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) and the company THEVA are also participating in the HTS4Fusion project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR). "HTS4Fusion is a valuable collaboration between industry and science to better understand high-temperature superconductors using fission neutrons and optimize them for future applications. In this way, fission and fusion work together to advance the technical utilization of nuclear fusion," says Dr. Christian Reiter, head of the project at FRM II.

320 million trees are killed by lightning each year

Lightning damage in forests is often hard to detect and has only been systematically studied in a few locations. Until now, it remained unclear how many trees worldwide die each year due to direct lightning-related damage. The TUM research team has developed the first method to estimate how many trees are so severely affected by lightning that they eventually die. Their conclusion: the ecological impact of lightning has been underestimated. While earlier studies focused on field observations in individual forests, the TUM researchers took a mathematical approach. They extended a widely used global vegetation model by integrating observational data and global lightning patterns. “We’re now able not only to estimate how many trees die from lightning strikes annually, but also to identify the regions most affected and assess the implications for global carbon storage and forest structure,” explains Andreas Krause, lead author of the study and researcher at the Chair of Land Surface–Atmosphere Interactions.

Starting a company while still at school

Florian Scherl, now 21, developed an early interest in IT and Artificial Intelligence. Aged just 12, he taught himself programming after school from online courses, attended programming camps, and entered IT competitions with AI models he had trained himself. But the boy from Traunstein, Upper Bavaria, soon outpaced those beginnings. “I always got pretty far, but then I didn’t take the projects any further, and that used to bother me a bit,” says Florian Scherl. Instead of working on a program in purely theoretical terms, his aim was to transform it into entrepreneurial reality. That opportunity came along in Year 11 at his school, the Chiemgau-Gymnasium. As part of a project seminar, Florian Scherl and two of his fellow students drew up a business plan involving the use of Artificial Intelligence to produce short movies. The team’s idea scooped second place in JUGEND GRÜNDET, a competition for budding entrepreneurs. Learning from the Silicon Valley  From those beginnings, Scherl and his teammates took giant leaps towards founding their company. As their prize for achieving second place, they were invited to visit Silicon Valley in the U.S.A., the cradle of so many high-tech companies. Florian Scherl also received a donation of a high-performance AI-computer from a company and was invited to take up an internship at an AI start-up in Pforzheim. “These experiences clinched it for me,” he recalls. “I decided to found a start-up of my own.” And so it came that on the day before his math exam in May 2022, 18-year-old Scherl was sitting in a notary’s office in Traunstein waiting for official notarization of his company’s shareholders’ agreement. However, he felt the lack of someone to talk to about his progress and share the responsibility. TUM, which he joined as an Informatics student in 2022, provided exactly what he needed. An entrepreneurship scheme by the student initiative TUM.ai brought him into contact with Philipp Gabriel, a master’s student of Information Systems who had already amassed practical experience in a variety of companies. “We make a great team,” says Scherl.  Taking up the opportunities in coaching and networking offered by TUM Start-up Consulting and TUM Venture Lab Software/AI, the duo honed their company idea: FAST AI Movies. Their focus is now an AI model that automatically creates explanatory videos based on companies’ existing online brochures or Intranet texts. The program recognizes semantic relationships between concepts, such as similarities, hierarchies, and causalities, and transforms them into a graphic structure augmented by easy-to-understand pictograms. The animations are accompanied by quiz questions, likewise generated automatically. Finally, the videos can be edited manually. “Our software is designed to smooth the transfer of knowledge between employees and departments and make the content more memorable,” says Florian Scherl. Promoting accessible knowledge As the primary market for their product, the company’s founders have identified industries that require compliance with complicated regulations or that sell intangible products, such as the IT, financial, and insurance sectors. Their AI software is already used by savings and cooperative banks and by the public health insurance company AOK Baden-Württemberg. In addition, the company gained its first investor at the end of 2024. Scherl is now fully occupied with the task of relocating from the TUM Incubator to his own premises and recruiting his first full-time employees, and has put his studies on hold for the moment.  What’s the most exciting aspect of working at a start-up? “Our AI enables us to provide easier and fairer access to work-related knowledge,” affirms Florian Scherl. “A start-up may only be a small first step, but it enables us to maximize our limited resources in creating something that will have a great impact.”

Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Nutritional Medicine celebrates anniversary

Professor Hans Hauner shaped the EKFZ from the very beginning in 2005. As founding director of EKFZ and Chair of Nutritional Medicine, his goal was clear: “From day one, we set out to close the gap between nutritional science and clinical practice. We needed a place where both come together — where basic lab research is right next to patient treatment.” Since then, the EKFZ has been conducting intensive research into key questions in nutritional medicine, with a particular focus on the causes and pathomechanisms of metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity, as well as the role of the pancreas and adipose tissue. Through studies, teaching programs, and outreach events, EKFZ experts continue to share their knowledge both with experts and the general public. Also, EKFZ offers direct support of patients through nutritional counseling, weight-loss programs, and evidence-based information on diet and nutrition-related illnesses — an area EKFZ aims to further expand in the coming years. All of this was made possible by the long-standing support of the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (EKFS). “It is the foundation’s mission to make scientifically well-founded knowledge on healthy nutrition accessible to the broader public,” said Dr. Dieter Schenk, Chairman of EKFS. “Both in treatment and prevention, medical knowledge must serve the well-being of as many people as possible — in keeping with the vision of our founder Else Kröner.”

3D-Printed nesting façade benefits people and wildlife

The nesting façade is part of the Ecolopes project, which explores sustainable ways for humans, animals, plants, and microorganisms to coexist in urban environments. The project is led by the Chair of Terrestrial Ecology under Prof. Wolfgang Weisser. The façade was developed in collaboration with the Chair of Digital Fabrication, led by Prof. Kathrin Dörfler, and is a central part of Iuliia Larikova’s doctoral research. Link to the video (german): https://www.muenchen.tv/mediathek/video/deutschlandweit-erste-nistfassade-aus-3d-druck/

The race for water

Michael Krautblatter goes ahead into the Kammstollen tunnel, a cable drum on his back. Running deep within the Zugspitze mountain, the tunnel was originally built for skiers almost a century ago, and is now part of Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus (UFS). After first passing through utility ducts, the path reaches a bend and we can only progress by crouching. The tunnel walls here are clothed in ice crystals that sparkle in the light from our head torches. But how much longer will they be here? Professor Krautblatter unrolls the cable and clips it to one of the electrodes that are screwed into every few meters of the rockface. The geoscientist and his team from the TUM Chair of Landslide Research come here to check the condition of the permafrost—the permanently frozen rock. They use electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) to collect information about the expansion of this permafrost almost 100 meters below the peak of the Zugspitze. 40 thermometers set into the rock simultaneously measure its core temperature. In this area, it has risen by half a degree to –0.7 degree Celsius since 2007. The permafrost in the limestone of the Zugspitze begins to thaw above the equilibrium freezing point of – 0.5 degree Celsius. Permafrost acts as an adhesive and fills tiny cracks and crevices in the rock, stabilizing the mountains. Without this “cement,” the Alps will start to crumble and rockslides, rock falls, and mudflows will become increasingly frequent, as seen on the Fluchthorn in 2023. As Krautblatter explains, lower snowfalls and higher temperatures also cause greater volumes of water to flow from the mountain peaks to the rivers in the spring snowmelt, a phenomenon that has been observed over decades. However, this is set to change within the foreseeable future. When the glaciers and permafrost shrink, the water reservoirs in the Alps will dwindle with them. Because of this, rivers will carry less and less water in hot and dry years, the very times when the need for water is at its most urgent, for example, for agricultural irrigation. “The Alps are warming twice as fast as the global average. It’s like a time machine showing us the future,” says Krautblatter.

Six 91��ɫ Grants for TUM researchers

Researchers at TUM have received a total of 247 prestigious 91��ɫ Grants to date. These are awarded each year in various categories. Proof of Concept Grants are endowed with 150,000 euros.

Gerhard Kramer re-elected as Executive Vice President of TUM

Gerhard Kramer has held the Chair of Communications Engineering at TUM since 2010. He earned his doctorate at ETH Zurich and conducted research at Bell Labs and the University of Southern California. He is an IEEE Fellow, a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and has received multiple international honors for his contributions to information and communication theory.  Professor Kramer has been a member of the TUM Executive Board since 2019. His re-election comes at a time of dynamic development: As part of Germany’s Excellence Strategy, seven Clusters of Excellence involving TUM are currently being funded. The university’s new future concept is nearing submission. His continued leadership sends a strong signal for strategic continuity, scientific excellence, and the sustained advancement of TUM’s research and innovation agenda. 

TUM creates seal of approval for robotics

Achim Lilienthal, Deputy Director of MIRMI and Professor of Intelligent Systems Perception, is convinced: “The TUM MIRMI test methodology has the potential to become an industrial testing standard.” This would create the conditions for establishing a seal of quality for the fast-growing robotics market. “Knowing the performance capabilities of a robot system is an enormous help to industry, where companies want to make the best possible use of robotic systems.” TUM MIRMI Executive Director Prof. Lorenzo Masia says: “Based on the original idea, I am certain that the AI Robot Safety & Performance Centre at TUM MIRMI will develop into an independent national testing center for robotics.” Single-armed robots as a starting point As a first step, the researchers examined and categorized single-armed robots from well-known manufacturers that are used in industry and research. Although many robotic arms look similar, they each have their own strengths and weaknesses, with big differences between sensors, motors and the actual brain of the intelligent machines. This results in systems that differ greatly in their basic capabilities. Some are powerful and precise in their movements, while others are gentle, flexible and sensitive in their interaction with their surroundings. To highlight these differences and the continuous progress of robotics, researchers at TUM MIRMI's AI Robot Safety & Performance Centre have developed the Tree of Robots. Based on Charles Darwin's Tree of Life, it depicts the fundamentally different adaptations of various species to their ‘habitat’, in this case not of living beings, but robots. “To do this, we look at the basic skills a robot needs in processes, such as how well it follows a given path, takes up a position, how gently it can make contact with surfaces, and how safe it is in dealing with collisions between robots and humans,” explains lab director Robin Kirschner. 25 measurements of robot sensitivity For tactility alone, there are 25 measurements that describe a robot’s sensitivity in physical contact with its surroundings. Among other things, this involves finding out whether the force applied to a surface, for example, is not actually higher than intended or whether a robot could cause injury to humans. From the pattern that emerges on a spider diagram based on the 25 measurements, even laypeople can see the robot’s sensitivity at a glance. A clear picture of a robotic system’s strengths and weaknesses Based on the performance of individual systems, researchers categorize them as ‘industrial robots,’ ‘cobots,’ ‘soft robots’ and ‘tactile robots.’ For surgical robots the decisive requirement is precision. For warehouse or factory applications, by contrast, the emphasis is on strength and resilience, i.e. the ability to perform repetitive movements over long periods. “We combine existing motion metrics with our new tactile metrics to provide the first-ever overview of the totality of the basic capabilities for physical interactions of a robotic system,” explains Kirschner.

Thomas F. Hofmann is the new Chairman of the University of Bavaria

The core task of the University of Bavaria is to identify trends and issues in higher education policy, promote cooperation between Bavarian universities, and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and experience between universities. Hofmann thanked his predecessor, the president of the University of Bayreuth, Prof. Stefan Leible, for his successful commitment to the community of Bavarian universities. "Together we are stronger. It is precisely this diversity, the different sizes, perspectives, and areas of focus, that allow us to advance the Bavarian university landscape as a whole. I am confident that we will succeed in further increasing the effectiveness of Bavaria as a university location in international competition." Bavaria's Minister of Science Markus Blume: "Congratulations to TUM President Prof. Dr. Thomas F. Hofmann on his election as Chairman of Universities in Bavaria. He stands for scientific excellence, strategic vision, and international networking—ideal prerequisites for representing our universities nationally and internationally. At the same time, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. Stefan Leible for his outstanding commitment and prudent leadership of University of Bavaria in recent years. Together, we will continue on the path he has successfully paved. Whether artificial intelligence, quantum technology, or security research, the coming years will bring profound changes, and at the same time geopolitical challenges. International competition for talent and the responsible shaping of innovation are key issues for the future. We will master these challenges through trusting cooperation between the state and universities. Bavarian universities can continue to rely on the Free State in the future!" Hofmann has been president of TUM since 2019 and has just been confirmed in office for another six years. The food chemist was named University Manager of the Year in Germany in 2024. During his tenure, TUM has risen to the top of all universities in the European Union in several international rankings.

New approaches to future nutrition

Science and arts in motion at the Kunstareal

Some danced, some simply lay on their picnic blankets in the evening sun and let themselves be enchanted by the sounds as glowing and rotating loudspeakers, created by artist Dr. Tim Otto Roth, were lifted into the sky in front of the Alte Pinakothek, just as they did on each of these warm June evenings of the Kunstareal-Fest 2025. With the three-day festival, the museums and institutions of Munich's Kunstareal celebrated this unique cultural location in the heart of the city on 27-29 June. Linking science and art was the aim of this installation entitled "Sonic Revolutions", which had been initiated by the TUM Center for Culture and Arts and researcher Bernhard Seeber, Professor of Audio Signal Processing at TUM. Sounds in motion Even during the setup and initial test runs, the crane carrying the illuminated loudspeaker spheres had already attracted the attention of some visitors. Consequently, the creators had plenty of opportunities to connect with the audience. "Analyzing, modifying, synthesizing and evaluating sounds," explains Prof. Seeber, "have been research topics at TUM for almost 60 years." This work of art now takes up older analysis methods, "and it builds a bridge to current research at the Chair of Audio Signal Processing," says Seeber. "To moving sound sources and to the analysis and synthesis of acoustic scenes in virtual reality." "Sonic Revolution" can be experienced every evening in front of the Alte Pinakothek until Sunday, July 13. The highlight of the presentation will be an arrangement of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Great Fugue" op. 133 for the celestial carousel from July 11 to 13, 2025 under the title "Ludwig & Joseph - Beethoven meets Fourier".

New center for brain research on the Garching campus

The human brain is a highly interconnected system. To understand how it works, as well as its disease mechanisms, it is necessary to decode the totality of neural connections. That will be the mission of the CSFC: Researchers will investigate the structure and function of neural circuits to improve our fundamental understanding of the healthy brain and diseases of the central nervous system. Initially, the CSFC will focus on three disease areas: multiple sclerosis, neuro-oncology and neurological developmental disorders. These use cases will significantly advance medical imaging. The CSFC will lead the development process from basic research to clinical application by integrating high-resolution microscopy technologies, novel imaging methods, AI-supported data analysis, and computational modeling.

Andreas Bausch is the new Nixdorf Professor

Organoids are mini-organs produced in the laboratory that can grow under cell culture conditions. This means organ-specific and disease-specific organoids can be generated from stem cells or patient cells. This is particularly interesting for drug testing and opens up the possibility of safely testing patient-specific therapies for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and neurodegeneration, for example. In addition, organoid technology has the potential to reduce animal testing in the long term. At the Center for Organoid Systems (COS), which is part of TUM's Munich Institute of Biomedical Engineering (MIBE), experts from various disciplines, including medicine, cell biology, microbiology, gene editing, computer science, biophysics, and bioelectronics, will work together. They will use artificial intelligence, bioengineering, and nanotechnology for this purpose. The COS connects the TUM Schools of Natural Sciences, Life Sciences, Computation, Information, and Technology, as well as the TUM University Hospital, creating a world-class research environment. TUM President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann emphasizes: "With the Center for Organoid Systems, we are taking a historic step forward. Not only are we strengthening our activities in biomedical engineering in a future-oriented area, but for the first time, we are bringing our medicine with a physical address into the sphere of influence of our natural and engineering sciences at the Garching campus. Through basic research, we want to make organoid technologies more powerful and robust and make new therapeutic approaches accessible. The financial support of the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation brings us a big step closer to this goal. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for this!" Dr. Horst Nasko, Deputy Chairman of the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation, says: "The Heinz Nixdorf Foundation has always been committed to the responsible use of innovative technology for the benefit of humanity. With the endowed professorship for Prof. Bausch and our support for the Center for Organoid Systems, we are promoting precisely this goal: scientific excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and visionary technological approaches that will revolutionize biomedicine. This is entirely in line with the vision of our founder, Heinz Nixdorf." Prof. Andreas Bausch says: "The initiative to establish the Center for Organoid Systems arose from the need to systematically combine scientific and engineering thinking with data-driven analysis in organoid research. Our goal is not only to recreate complex organoid systems in the laboratory, but also to understand them physically and quantitatively, as a basis for robust biotechnological, diagnostic, and therapeutic applications. The support of the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation now allows us to push ahead with precisely this technological integration at full speed.

Platform for digital seals and signatures

In the past, the Graduation Office and Academic Records Department at the TUM Center for Study and Teaching had to print, sign, and mail around 7,000 certificates every semester. Today, this process is easier and more secure. For example, degree certificates are provided with an electronic seal and are available online immediately. The team can save many hours of work. Franziska Bokhorst, Head of the Graduation Office, says that well over half a million documents have now been automatically sealed. Degree certificates, course certificates, and affidavits stating that you wrote your thesis independently can all be digitally sealed, signed, and sent in a tamper-proof manner. This saves a lot of time, especially for documents requiring the approval of numerous parties in different locations, such as contracts for third-party funded projects. It does so via TUM's own platform, rather than standard software, which is often used by companies and universities. First, such solutions are expensive, given the large volume of documents handled by TUM. Second, the data is usually processed on US servers.

"We are making Munich an innovation hub for the future of medicine"

Bavaria's Minister of Science, Markus Blume, said at the founding ceremony in the Munich Residenz: "We are creating the most powerful unit of cutting-edge medicine in Germany. Munich is becoming the medical capital of the republic. One thing is clear: this is about medical progress and the best care for the people in our country. We want to keep pace with the best in the world. To do this, we must and will catch up in the field of clinical trials to make Germany the pharmacy of the world again. We must and will break new ground in using health data; together with the possibilities of artificial intelligence, groundbreaking advances for new forms of therapy can be expected here. And we want to and will ensure that scientific knowledge reaches the bedside directly and perhaps also enables new business models." TUM President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann emphasizes: "The medicine of tomorrow should come from Munich! With this ambition, we are bringing together the top talent from the universities of excellence TUM and LMU, the university hospitals, and the Helmholtz Center Munich in the M1 – Munich Medical Alliance. With this collaborative approach, we want to develop Munich into one of the leading innovation hubs for the future of medicine." With the strategic alliance "M1 – Munich Medicine Alliance," the partners want to strategically develop the exceptional strengths of Munich medicine to a world-class level. To this end, joint infrastructures for conducting clinical studies, platform technologies, and data integration are to be created. Translation projects are intended to accelerate the transfer of new knowledge and technologies from the laboratory to the patient.

Dr. Markus Wächter appointed as new Vice President of TUM Asia

Wächter has around 20 years of experience managing the TUM Campus in Singapore, which was founded in 2002 as the first German academic branch abroad. He is himself a graduate of TUM, where he completed his studies in mathematics with a minor in physics and then earned his doctorate in aerospace engineering in 2004. He is also a member of the board of directors of TUMCREATE, TUM's research location in Singapore, and co-chair of the Digital and Innovation Committee of the German-Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGC).

Construction begins on new Center for Digital Medicine and Health

The goal of digital medicine is to identify diseases more quickly, reliably, and in new ways; to tailor therapies to individual patients; and, crucially, to make health data available for large-scale research while protecting privacy. TUM’s ZDMG will take on these challenges from a high-tech facility on the grounds of the TUM University Hospital. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on Friday, June 27, with Bavarian Science Minister Markus Blume in attendance. The state-of-the-art research building, located in Munich’s Haidhausen district, is expected to be completed by the end of 2027. It will offer approximately 2,050 square meters of usable space and accommodate around 140 staff members. The facility will support the development of innovative AI and data science methods for medical applications. Among its features will be a data observatory and a high-performance computing cluster. The €47.1 million project is being funded jointly by the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.

Presidential Award goes to AI start-up

The TUM Entrepreneurship Day brought together the various actors from the wide-ranging Munich innovation ecosystem. In podium discussions they addressed such topics as the AI research landscape and potential EU sovereignty in outer space. TUM researchers presented a new study showing which universities are producing the most entrepreneurs. More than 50 start-ups were on hand to introduce their work to the around 1,800 people in attendance. This year’s TUM Presidential Entrepreneurship Award was presented to a highly promising spin-off. The award honors business ideas that are primarily rooted in research, show strong growth potential and have successfully garnered initial funding. It comes with a 10,000 euro cash prize, donated by the TUM Association of Alumni and Friends.

Isar Aerospace becomes a unicorn

Dozens of new technologies require more and more satellites for data transmission – whether for communication networks, autonomous driving, or digital agriculture. To this end, companies want to launch entire swarms of satellites into space. These are comparatively small and are intended to move in low Earth orbits. Isar Aerospace wants to tap into this economic potential. The company, which was already honored with the TUM Presidential Entrepreneurship Award in 2023, completed its first test flight with a 28-meter-high launch vehicle from the Norwegian spaceport Andøya in March 2025. The company's founders, Daniel Metzler, Josef Fleischmann, and Markus Brandl, studied aerospace engineering at TUM. After founding the company in 2018, they built their first prototypes in the high-tech workshop MakerSpace at UnternehmerTUM, the center for innovation and entrepreneurship at TUM. They also received support from the XPRENEURS incubator. Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners invested in the start-up alongside several other investors. The company is based in Ottobrunn, near the TUM Department of Aerospace and Geodesy. In a recent financing round, Isar Aerospace raised an additional $150 million from investors, achieving unicorn status. TUM President Thomas F. Hofmann is delighted: "Isar Aerospace is a great example of how things should work. The founders acquired their expertise at TUM, found each other as a team, and began to revolutionize rocket technology to tap the economic potential of aerospace for Germany! I would like to thank the founders and employees of Isar Aerospace for their pioneering spirit."

TUM produces the most start-up founders

Start-ups are considered an important factor for the success of a business location, and researchers and students are predestined to make new findings and technologies usable for the general public with companies. But which universities produce the most founders? Previous studies have been based on surveys on spin-offs in the narrower sense or comparatively generalized classifications. The Entrepreneurial Impact Study therefore investigated this question for the third time with an elaborate data analysis – for the first time for the entire DACH region, i.e. Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The researchers from TUM, ETH and the University of Innsbruck compiled around 51,000 start-ups that were founded in the three countries between 2014 and 2024 from several databases such as Startupdetector, Austrian Startup Monitor and Startupticker. They then used LinkedIn, the Dealroom and Crunchbase databases and company websites to record the universities at which the founders had studied and, if applicable, worked. They took into account the different educational and career stages and assigned the start-ups to the various institutions if these had made a substantial contribution to the founding teams' careers.

Exploring the urban soundscape

Traffic or construction site noises and the trams’ bell — when people think of city sounds, they often focus on the negative. This perception is reflected in urban planning, which tends to prioritize sound reduction. But the urban soundscape of the city is much more than that: birdsong, lively conversations, and children playing are also part of the city’s everyday sounds. “We’re trying to understand the relationship between biodiversity, mental health, and the urban soundscape — and how we can find ways to strengthen this link in a positive direction,” explains Leonie Schulz, a research associate in Urban Productive Ecosystems at TUM and project coordinator for CitySoundscapes. The goal of the project is to develop practical, evidence-based recommendations for cities and municipalities that incorporate public perspectives and help improve everyday life in urban areas. In addition to TUM and LMU, project partners include TU Berlin, Biotopia Lab, the Department of Climate and Environmental Protection of the City of Munich, Green City e.V., and the Munich chapter of BUND Naturschutz. In various sub-projects, the team studies selected locations across Munich to assess land use, green space design, and local biodiversity. One of these sub-projects involves the soundwalks — this is where the public gets involved. Following designated routes, participants explore their surroundings in small groups: Which sounds feel pleasant? Which are neutral? And which are simply annoying? Participants anonymously share their impressions on paper questionnaires or through a mobile app. Combined with data from other research, these responses provide the foundation for recommendations aimed at making city soundscapes more pleasant.