Research center comes to Weimar and Bautzen

A federal research center for sustainable building in Weimar and Bautzen has been given the green light by the Bundestag's budget committee. The Thuringian Ministry of Science announced on Wednesday that the federal government will provide 3.6 million euros for this purpose in the current year. Further funding of 65 million euros has been earmarked until 2028. Work on establishing the national research center can now begin. According to the information, the core of the center is to be developed from existing research structures and focal points in Saxony and Thuringia.

Thuringia's Science Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee (SPD) welcomed the release of the funds: "This opens up outstanding development opportunities for research and economic application for Weimar as a construction research location." The location already has established structures and decades of research expertise in the field of sustainable construction.

Saxony's Regional Development Minister Thomas Schmidt (CDU) also expressed his delight. "The new construction research center is an excellent fit for Saxony," he said, according to a statement from the district of Bautzen. Saxony is and will remain home to cutting-edge research and also wants to be at the forefront of the construction of the future.

The background to the decision is that Germany's construction industry is set to become climate-neutral by 2045. The new center is intended to drive forward research into new building materials, alternative construction technologies and resource-saving manufacturing and construction processes. The topic is still largely in its infancy in Germany, "but the potential for savings, for example through the recycling of building materials and climate-friendly substitutes in the construction industry, is enormous," said Tiefensee. This is shown, for example, by the fact that the construction and building sector alone contributes around 40 percent to Germany's overall carbon footprint.