754,000 euros for "2°-Netz" climate protection project at Kassel University

How can smaller companies in particular be enabled to do more to protect the climate? Over the next two years, a young team of founders at the University of Kassel wants to develop an automated and intelligent platform that companies can use to quickly calculate a climate strategy. The state of Hesse is funding the project, called "2°-Netz," with around 754,000 euros from the Distr@l - Strengthening Digitization, Living Transfer funding program. Digital Minister Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus handed over the funding notification to the founding team Dr. Ron-Hendrik Hechelmann, Nadja Buchenau, Jannik Oetzel and Achim Krueger, as well as the project manager in the Department of Environmentally Friendly Products and Processes, Prof. Dr. Jens Hesselbach, today in Allendorf (Eder) at the Climate Protection Day.

"We pay particular attention to the topic of green IT in all areas. After all, digitization can help save resources and protect the climate," said Minister Sinemus. "Our goal is to develop pioneering and resource-saving digital products and applications that can be used in companies, municipalities and private households. The '2° network' project is heading in precisely this direction," Sinemus also referred to calculations made last year by the industry association Bitkom. According to these, digitization can contribute just under 60 percent of the savings for Germany's climate targets. "This means that we must increasingly focus on digital products and business models that take ecology and economy into account in equal measure."

The "2° network" reduces complexity. The innovative solution approach for the complex objective consists of networking competencies and data through this platform. By means of an automated and standardized data collection based on the established ISO standards 14001 and 50001, the status quo of companies is recorded. Based on this data, the solution algorithm then creates an industry-specific strategy for the company. This includes the measures and timing for investments in energy efficiency projects, in the substitution of fossil energy sources and the compensation of emissions along the company's own value chain. The aim is to prepare the research results in such a way that they can be put to commercial use.

Prof. Dr. Jens Hesselbach: "For 20 years, we have been working on solutions for climate protection in close cooperation with industry. Digitization and young dedicated scientists are bringing the urgently needed acceleration. To support this, I see both as a social task of the universities and equally as an excellent economic opportunity to create new companies with high potential for new jobs."

Prof. Dr. Ute Clement, President of the University of Kassel, is delighted about the award and congratulates the founding team on their success: "I am very pleased about the award. It once again proves the strong potential of the University of Kassel in terms of a university of sustainability. In addition, the transfer idea - from basic research to application - is also implemented here in an exemplary manner."

The project is funded through the Distr@l funding line 4A. It is aimed at university teams of up to five people who want to validate their research results in a practice-oriented manner with the aim of bringing them to market in the future. In addition, the idea of entrepreneurship at Hessian universities is to be further strengthened. The Distr@l - Strengthen Digitization, Live Transfer funding program was launched at the end of 2019 and is running very successfully. Distr@l is geared toward research and development projects that significantly raise the state of the art in order to meet the challenges of digital transformation in business and society consciously and and with four funding lines in a target group-oriented manner. So far, 76 projects with a funding volume of more than 22 million euros have already been approved. In addition, more than 14 million euros are co-financed by industry/applicants.

Contact:

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Hesselbach
FB 15 Institute for Production Engineering and Logistics (IPL)  
Tel.: 0561-804-3179
hesselbach@uni-kassel.de