Best Poster Award for our colleague Johanna Uher

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Created: Monday, 23 September 2024 10:27

Congratulations to Johanna Uher!

We're happy that our colleague Johanna Uher won the Best Poster Award at the Young Polymer Researchers Austria Meeting (YPRA) in Weiz.
Title: "Reformable bio-based thiol-ene vitrimers for nanoimprint lithography"

32. Leoben-Conference on Polymer Engineering & Science, Nov. 21 and 22, 2024

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Created: Monday, 22 July 2024 13:13

We are thrilled to announce that the 32nd Leoben Conference on Polymer Engineering and Science will take place on November 21^st and 22^nd, 2024.
This year’s theme, "New Materials - New Perspectives," promises to deliver cutting-edge insights and discussions.
As every year, the conference is jointly organized by PCCL and the Department for Polymer Engineering and Science Leoben.

Brand New This Year
The 32nd Leoben Conference on Polymer Engineering and Science will kick off with a panel discussion in German on the topic of polymers in a world without oil.

We will be welcoming high-caliber guests from business, science, and research to Leoben:

• Harald Bleier, Ecoplus
• Alexander Kronimus, Plastics Europe
• Markus Seidel, BMW Group
• Martin Wimmer, Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology
• Andreas Leitner, OMV AG

Additional Highlights

• Presentation of the POLYMER SCIENCE SCHOOL AWARD
• Presentations from successful spin-off companies
• A poster session featuring innovative research
• A networking dinner on the evening of the first day

And the rest of the scientific program is also taking shape! Get more infos on the conference website --> https://www.unileoben.ac.at/polymerevents/

We look forward to welcoming you!

Approval of another four-year funding period for our COMET Center

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Created: Monday, 08 July 2024 11:22

The Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH (PCCL) remains on course for success.

Following an intensive evaluation by a panel of experts from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the outstanding level of performance was confirmed. The PCCL is now delighted to have received approval for a further four-year funding period for the COMET research center "Centre for Circularity, Functionality and Digitalization in Polymer Technologies", with a total volume of approx. 22.6 million euros.
The Centre will be funded by the FFG and the Austrian federal provinces of Styria via SFG, Upper Austria and Vorarlberg for the period from 2025 to 2028.

The declared goals are to contribute to the solution to current global problems related to the production, application and disposal of polymer-based products and to provide answers with high socio-economic impacts. With its active role in the circularity and sustainability of polymers, our consortium of 18 scientific and 40 company partners will increase its contributions to both the UN Sustainability Goals and the Green New Deal for Europe. Therefore, 16 individual projects were jointly defined in an ambitious research programme.

Walter Stephan resigns as a member of the Supervisory Board after 15 years

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Created: Sunday, 30 June 2024 19:38

Walter Stephan has announced his resignation after more than 15 years on the Supervisory Board.

Our Managing Directors Elisabeth Ladstätter and Wolfgang Kern as well as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Willi Simma have thanked him for his support as a founding member and valuable advisor to our research institute.

We wish him all the best for the future!

COMET Modul BattLab Consortium Meeting

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Created: Wednesday, 19 June 2024 17:50

The Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH, as the leader of the consortium, had the honor to host the 1st Consortium Meeting of theCOMET-Module BATTLAB in Leoben. This hybrid meeting brought together 10 partners from industry and academia to discuss the objectives of the BattLab module. Over the next 4 years, efforts will focus on integrating polymer science, simulation models, data science, and AI approaches to improve the safety and evaluate the performance of Li-ion batteries.

More information at BattLab - PCCL - Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH

Success for our colleague Muhammad Salman Malik

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Created: Wednesday, 19 June 2024 17:46

Our colleague Muhammad Salman Malik successfully completed his doctoral thesis last Friday.

Congratulations to him!

Lange Nacht der Forschung 2024

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Created: Wednesday, 19 June 2024 17:40

On 24.5.2024 we proudly took part at the Lange Nacht der Forschung and it was a great success!

The youngest visitors in particular had a lot of fun, especially when they were allowed to build their own PV module and take it home with them. We were able to showcase the incredible potential of plastics to so many curious minds.

We are already looking forward to the next event in two years' time.

Spirit Award for Women in Science for Chiara Barretta

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Created: Thursday, 15 February 2024 18:18

Congratulations to our colleague Chiara Barretta, who won the Spirit Award for Women in Science in the Junior Scientist Applied Research category.

Bravo!
More information at: https://spiritofstyria.at/sp22/vier-gewinnerinnen-ein-heimlicher-sieger/

Event: Women in Sciene - Your Empowered Career (March 14, 2024)

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Created: Monday, 05 February 2024 11:31

We are very pleased to announce that we are organizing an event in partnership with Materials Center Leoben Forschung GmbH to encourage and empower women choosing studies and career in the MINT field.

When? March 14, 2024, starting at 4 pm.
Where? Meeting room on the 4th floor of IZW (Roseggerstraße 12, 8700 Leoben).

Program:
04:00 pm - Welcome and Testimonials: We have invited four female colleagues to share their career journeys and discuss the everyday challenges they face as women working in tech.
05:30 pm - Workshop: Following these testimonials, a workshop will be held by GenderWerkstätte, offering participants the chance to address their own issues and challenges and engage in exercises that aim to empower women studying and working in the MINT field. The workshop is limited to a small group of participants.

Join us for an empowering evening filled with insightful discussions and opportunities for networking! Refreshments will be served following the workshop to give our guests the chance to socialize and exchange their experiences further. Let's continue breaking barriers and empower women in the tech world!

Please register your interest to participate via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and indicate whether you would like to attend the workshop as well. The number of spots is limited!

Funding approval for two COMET modules

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Created: Tuesday, 28 November 2023 19:00

Outstanding success for PCCL!
This week we received the funding approval for our 2 COMET Modules, BattLab and Repairtecture.

The COMET Module BattLab - High performance battery systems driven by polymer science und virtual material engineering combines multi-physics virtual material engineering and fundamental polymer science to pave the way towards safe high-performance battery systems of the future. Battlab will thus drive the development of new battery generations by adopting a virtual engineering approach that leverages polymer science and considers the in-depth system physics on multiple scale levels.

The COMET Module Repairtecture - Innovative repair concepts for polymer-based materials and components along their lifetime focuses on forward-looking repair concepts for high-performance polymers, which are an important driver for Europe's climate neutrality by 2050. The research topics address simulation models for predicting the need for repair, self-healable polymers, advanced adhesives (switching the adhesion strength on demand) and reversible mechanical bonding concepts for eco-design applications.