Altensteig/Simmersfeld. The Friedrich and Elisabeth Boysen Foundation recently organised the tenth edition of the Boysen Doctoral Student Days in Simmersfeld. The focus was on building bridges between university research and industrial practice.
The Boysen Foundation has been funding research projects in the field of environmental protection since 1996 and awards over two million euros annually to scientific work at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the University of Stuttgart and the Technical University of Dresden. Since 2013, the Doctoral Student Days have provided a platform for the recipients to present their research results and exchange ideas with professors and company representatives across disciplines.
Till Scharf, Vice President of the Boysen Group, welcomed the 75 participants to the recently opened BAK Development Centre in Simmersfeld in accordance with the motto " Encourage and Challenge". At its new development site, the Boysen Group will drive forward solutions for electromobility and in the field of environmental and energy technology. In addition to expanding its battery housing expertise, the centre will also focus on developments in the areas of hydrogen technologies, fuel cell applications and redox flow battery storage.
In his welcoming speech, Scharf emphasised that the foundation's funding should not just be about pure research work. Rather, he expects practical starting points for mastering the social and technical challenges of the energy transition.
It is true that the Boysen Group has succeeded for years in countering the smouldering pressure within the automotive industry with flexible solutions. However, this is not a matter of course, especially as there are plenty of examples in the business press of market competitors facing massive job cuts. "If you think that we are building up pressure with this, you are right," said Scharf, demanding concrete results from the doctoral students. "This pressure is necessary to create real innovations that Germany as a business location needs to secure domestic jobs."
Boysen CEO Rolf Geisel agreed with this: "We live in fast-moving times and don't know what the world will look like in the coming years." All the more it needs new, profitable findings from science. In view of the numerous challenges and opportunities of technological transformation, no one can predict whether the decisions made today will prove to be correct, "but doing nothing is absolutely unacceptable."
The fact that the research projects of the funded doctoral students aim to fulfil this requirement was demonstrated by the scientists in numerous specialist presentations during the two-day event. Among other things, one focus was on projects with the research background "Hydrogen economy as a core element of a future Green Gas Deal". These topics are funded by the foundation within the "Boysen-TU Dresden Graduiertenkolleg", which combines several disciplines - including engineering, social sciences and humanities.
The two-day event was traditionally rounded off with a tour of the Boysen production plant in Simmersfeld and the neighbouring museum "Boysen World". The participants learnt more about the various stages of the Boysen Group's transformation, as well as some exciting details from the company's 103-year history.
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The core business of the Boysen Group, headquartered in Altensteig (Baden-Württemberg), is the development and production of high-performance exhaust systems and components for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and off-highway applications. In addition to the three main customers Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, the exhaust technology specialist works for the German car manufacturers Volkswagen and Porsche, the British brands Bentley and Rolls-Royce, the commercial vehicle manufacturers Daimler Truck and MAN as well as in the field of off-highway applications for Krauss Maffei, mtu, Voith and others.
The Boysen Group has been driving forward its technological transformation since 2016. With new product groups such as battery cases, hydrogen refuelling systems, control elements and electronic components, the next chapter in the company's 100-year history is being written. Further building blocks of the future strategy are the production of energy storage systems (redox flow battery systems) and fuel cells as well as basic and product development in the field of hydrogen technology.
The Boysen Group is a foundation company and currently employs around 5,300 people at 28 locations in Germany and abroad. In addition to the development sites in Altensteig, Nagold and Simmersfeld, Boysen has production sites in Altensteig, Simmersfeld, Heubach, Salching, Ingolstadt, Plauen and Achim as well as in France, Egypt, South Africa, India, China, Mexico, Serbia, Romania and the USA.
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For further questions please contact:
Christian Grimm
Marketing Team Leader
BIN Boysen Innovationszentrum Nagold GmbH & Co. KG
Carl-Friedrich-Gauss-Str. 4
72202 Nagold
Tel. 07452/8408-200
Fax 07452/8408-8200
E-mail christian.grimm(at)bin.boysen-online.de
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