Research

Research Center Sustainability (artec)

The Research Center Sustainability is a "Central Research Unit" of the University of Bremen. Founded in 1989 as the Research Center for Work and Technology (artec), it was broadened with an environmental perspective in 1997. In 2003, it was far- reaching restructured as a research center for sustainability. Today, the institution bundles a multidisciplinary spectrum of competencies in the field of sustainability research. It is made up of professors from a wide range of different faculties, currently including Social Sciences, Production Engineering, Cultural Studies, Pedagogy and Educational Sciences, and Human and Health Sciences.

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Bremen Institute for Applied Beam Technology (BIAS)

The BIAS - Bremer Institut für angewandte Strahltechnik - was founded with the objective of a technology transfer institution. Therefore, customers with contract research projects from the industry were partners of the institute from the very beginning. The public sector - the State of Bremen, the German Research Foundation, the Federal Government and other funding institutions - finance the preliminary research on materials processing and metrology. The BIAS has the status of a non-profit organization with tax benefits and a permanent staff of 40 academics and 19 technicians or master craftsmen. In addition, there is a team of scientific assistants, guest scientists and other employees.

The BIAS focuses on the following areas of activities in the fields of laser-based material processing and optical metrology:

•     Research in own projects, in collaborative projects and on a contract basis,
•     Developments for customers in industry and the public sector,
•     Contract work for research customers, preproduction for in-house manufacturing.

www.bias.de

BIBA – Research for Production and Logistics

BIBA - Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik GmbH - is an engineering research institute with a focus on logistics and engineering science. It researches and develops technical and organizational solutions and implements them in a practical way in companies of all branches, sizes and nationalities. Today, 110 people work in BIBA's four research areas. They mostly come from production technology, industrial engineering, computer science, physics and electrical engineering as well as from related scientific disciplines. BIBA is one of the larger research institutions in the state of Bremen.

As an interface between science and industry, BIBA has cooperations and partnerships with about 400 institutes, universities and companies all over the world. The institute has been very successful in European research alliances: The institute is significantly involved in three special research areas (SFB) of the German Research Foundation at the University of Bremen.

www.biba.uni-bremen.de

Research Unit for European Environmental Law

The Research Unit for European Environmental Law (FEU) was founded in 1994 as an institution of the Department of Law. It is mainly engaged in externally funded research, e.g. for the European Commission, the German Federal Environmental Agency, the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, the German Federal Ministry of Research and Technology, the Global Environment Facility, the German Research Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation. The FEU has a small specialized library on environmental law, which is open to the public.

Focus and characteristics of the research unit's activities are:

•     German environmental law
•     EC environmental law
•     International environmental law
•     Connections and interactions between environmental law and commercial law
•     Cooperation with other disciplines, especially natural sciences, sociology and economics
•     Comparative law
•     Basic and applied research
•     Legal advice
•     Co-editing of the publication series "Environmental Law Studies", "Zeitschrift für Umweltrecht" and the "Journal of Environmental Law"
•     Coordination of the "avosetta group", an association of european environmental lawyers.

www.uni-bremen.de/feu

Institute for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

The Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Bremen currently includes five working groups. The IFOE is open in principle, i.e. other departments and staff of the University interested in the subject are welcome to join or contribute to the activities.

The essential goals of the institute are:

•  Cross-group exchange of information on relevant issues in ecology and evolutionary biology
•  Exchange of information and support on methodological aspects of ecology and evolutionary biology
•  Establishing of small working groups on specific practical as well as theoretical problems
•  Synergistic effects through coordination of research projects, e.g. by using common sampling sites
•  Coordination and cooperation in teaching, especially in practical courses and excursions
•  Development of interdisciplinary research projects and applications for third-party financing

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Institute for Environmental Physics

The "Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP)" is focused on investigating the Earth system by physical methods. Currently, research is organized into four main areas, each with different subgroups:

•     Remote Sensing (Prof. J. Notholt)
•     Physics and chemistry of the atmosphere (Prof. J.P. Burrows)
•     Oceanography (Prof. M. Rhein)
•     Terrestrial Environmental Physics (Dr. H. Fischer)

https://www.iup.uni-bremen.de/eng/

Research Group Environmental Process Engineering

The Research Group Environmental Process Engineering (headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Sven Kerzenmacher) performs interdisciplinary research on fundamentals, material, and processes for environmental engineering and sustainable biotechnology.

Its research is centered on new processes for energy-efficient wastewater treatment, bio-production, and resource recovery. This includes the use of biocatalysts such as enzymes or microorganisms for production and remediation processes, for instance the electrochemical hydrogen generation or the removal of anthropogenic micro-pollutants from wastewaters.

The realization of new processes often requires tailor-made functional materials. In this context, the department’s material science activities are focused on the research and development of hierarchically organized nanofibers, fabricated using the electro-spinning method. These materials serve as (bio-) electrochemical electrodes, as support material for biofilm or enzymatic and abiotic catalysts. Furthermore, electrically conductive filtration membranes are being developed for the integration of electrochemical processes into membrane bioreactors.

With respect to fundamentals, the department’s research includes methods of applied (bio-) electrochemistry and the multi-scale investigation of mass transfer processes. The later primarily comprises experimental analysis and modelling of local effects in multi-phase flows with and without biological or chemical reactions.

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Center for Marine Environmental Sciences

In the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) and in the DFG Research Center "Ocean Margins" (RCOM) the following institutions have been working together since 1996 and 2001:

•     the Department of Earth Sciences and other departments of the University of Bremen,
•     the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven,
•     the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen,
•     the Center for Marine Tropical Ecology in Bremen, and
•     the Senckenberg Research Institute in Wilhelmshaven.

MARUM_RCOM uses state-of-the-art methods to decipher the role of the oceans in the Earth system, especially with regard to global change. It records the interactions between geological and biological processes in the ocean and gives insights for a sustainable use of the oceans.
Research focuses on the ocean edges (i.e., the seams between the oceans and the continents) and the adjacent deep ocean. The area of ocean margins extends from the coast to the shelf and continental slope to the continental foot. More than 60% of the world's population lives in the adjacent coastal zones. For a long time they have intensively used the coastal waters for the production of resources and food. More recently, human activities have been expanding further and further out into the ocean, where ocean fringes have gained increasing attention as potential centers for hydrocarbon exploration, industrial fishing, and other economic uses.

The research focuses on five research areas:

•     Ocean and Climate,
•     Biogeochemical processes,
•     Sedimentation processes,
•     Coastal dynamics and use impact research.
•     Gas and fluid seeps.

www.marum.de

Center for Environmental Research and Sustainable Technologies (UFT)

The Center for Environmental Research and Sustainable Technology (UFT) is a Central Research Unit of the University of Bremen comprising currently nine research groups from the Faculty of Biology/Chemistry and the Faculty of Production Engineering - Mechanical Engineering & Process Engineering with more than 100 employees altogether.

Our vision

What brings us together at UFT is the vision of a sustainable society, which considers resource limitations, environmental impacts and undesired side effects of new technologies and processes already during their design. This sustainable society primarily uses renewable energy and materials in all sectors. This leads to more sustainable processes on all scales as well as a significant reduction in the concentration of greenhouse gases and toxic compounds in the ecosphere. Accordingly, it helps decelerating the loss of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. For this purpose, at UFT biologists, chemists, physicists, and engineers cooperate in basic research and applied projects. UFT is the place where we enjoy communicating and exchanging ideas across the boundaries of scientific disciplines to foster open-minded interdisciplinary spirit and to develop joint research projects and initiatives.

Our mission

The goal of UFT is achieving a multidisciplinary understanding of biological and chemical transformation processes for the development of environmentally friendly technologies. Being excited by this goal, we are determined to also enthuse students and early-career researchers, with whom we carry out our research on all levels of academic education.

Mirroring the interdisciplinary nature of UFT, our current research topics are centered on

•  Biological and chemical transformation
  • In the environment
  • In cells and organisms
  • In technical systems
• Environmental impacts
  • Anthropogenic effects on changing ecosystems
  • Engineering tools for environmental monitoring 
  • Mitigation of pollutants in water and soil
• Electrochemical technologies
  • Bioelectrochemical CO₂-fixation
  • Electricity-driven material production and recovery
  • Energy storage systems

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