The centre, which has more than 20 staff and comprises a technical centre, laboratories and office space, will develop and test flexible and efficient production concepts for the ‘Factory of the Future’ that help to conserve resources.
‘The only way we can achieve significant additional improvements in sustainability and resource conservation in production processes is by using completely new technologies,’ commented Wolfgang Plischke, Bayer Management Board member responsible for Innovation, Technology and Environment.
The results of research projects at the facility will not only be put into practice, but also provided to students and graduates participating in education programmes, who will be able to take a first-hand look at world-class science and research during future visits to the centre.
‘At INVITE, institutions of higher learning and industrial partners join forces to develop innovative technologies more efficiently than ever before, and do so under realistic industrial conditions. Our students also benefit from the practice-oriented instruction and project work at INVITE,’ said Ursula Gather, president of TU Dortmund University.
The groundbreaking for the research facility, which was funded in part by the German federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with €5m from Economic Stimulus Package II, took place in October 2010. Bayer, TU Dortmund University and the state invested a total of €6.5m.
