Ekkard Brinksmeier, Professor of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen and Director of the main department of production engineering at the Institute of Materials Sciences has been granted a Reinhart Koselleck project. Germany’s largest funding organization, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), found his idea for the “Development of mineral-oil-free cooling lubricants from the matter of micro-organisms” together with his track record of research more than convincing. Prof. Brinksmeier has been allocated funding in an amount of €1.5 million over the next five-year period to implement this “extremely innovative and in a positive sense high-risk project”.
After the computer scientist, Professor Rolf Drechsler, Prof. Brinksmeier is now the second member of the University of Bremen and, indeed, only the second scientist in the field of mechanical engineering and production engineering to receive funding within the context of what the DFG refers to as Reinhart Koselleck projects. Up to now the DFG has granted this coveted form of funding only 31 times, involving a total amount of €34.2 million. The DFG reserves its Reinhart Koselleck projects – named after the non-conformist 20th-century German historian – for research scientists who have the courage to embark on highly innovative research. Through a simplified procedure they are funded “for five years to carry out a particularly innovative project which is intrinsically open-ended”.
Brinksmeier is over the moon! For he believes that as a rule German research scientists are overly constrained by the dictates of conventional research and complicated formal applications for funding, often making it impossible to follow up on promising new ideas. A lot of time is wasted that could be better spent in the laboratory. “It’s different with Koselleck projects. This form of funding gives us the opportunity to explore new territory and to implement our ideas with a high level of freedom”, says Brinksmeier. Together with his team he wants to develop mineral-oil-free cooling lubricants and, hence, also make a contribution towards more eco-friendly and less resource-intensive metalworking processes. The complex subject matter calls for an interdisciplinary approach and close cooperation i.a. between the areas of production engineering and microbiology.
You can get more information at www.iwt-bremen.de and direct from Ekkard Brinksmeier, Phone 0421 218-54 00, e-mail: brinksmeierprotect me ?!iwt.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de.
