Our business units (departments) are oriented to materials-related research and development topics and the impacts upon a product's life cycle. In each phase the Fraunhofer IWM provides sustainable and innovative solutions for product and technology development processes. Each business unit has a clearly defined contextual focus, these being Materials Design, Manufacturing Processes, Tribology, Component Safety and Lightweight Construction and Assessment of Materials, Lifetime Concepts. The Fraunhofer IWM business units address central research themes which are related to energy and resource efficiency.
The operating budget is financed through external earnings and institutional funding (core funding). The operating budget for 2022 amounted to 25.4 million euro, of which 25.1% came from industry revenues. The investment budget for 2022 was 2.3 million euro.
At the end of 2022 the institute employed 136 scientists, 71 technical staff and 55 infrastructure staff. Including the 56 academic assistants which included interns as well as 9 apprentices, the Fraunhofer IWM had 327 employees in 2022.