The Center
Concept
The Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies (FIT) stands for basic research that forms the basis for the development of new materials and technologies. The projects conducted at FIT consist of individual research projects and long-term collaborative research projects.
The projects deal with the development of interactive and intelligent functional materials, foils and surfaces as well as material-integrated (micro)systems in order to create novel adaptive and active (polymer-based) materials.
Furthermore, inspired by models from living nature, new materials for energy conversion and energy storage are being developed and coupled with system functions. In addition, energy-autonomous embedded (micro)systems are being developed that harvest energy directly from their environment.
Another focus is on biomimetic, biobased and bioactive material systems. This includes the bioinspired and biomimetic design of materials systems and the development of new active hybrids of synthetic and biological components, as well as the bioactive functionalization of materials and (micro)systems to enable them to interact with proteins, cells and tissues.
Cluster of Excellence livMatS
Starting in 2019, the Cluster of Excellence Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS) has been anchored at FIT. The vision of the cluster to combine the best of two worlds — nature and technology — will be realized by a team of scientists from the fields of energy research, biomimetics and microsystems technology as well as sustainability research, psychology and philosophy.
Freiburg Research Associaton BiTS
The FIT is based on the Freiburg research association “BioInspired Technologies and Systems” (BITS), in which materials and life sciences joined forces with microsystems technology in 2006. The concept for the FIT emerged from the BITS idea. The new FIT building was approved in 2010 as part of the “Zukunftsoffensive IV Innovation und Exzellenz – Materialwissenschaftliche Zentren Baden-Württemberg”. Since 2012, it has been established as a new center at the University of Freiburg.