DFG Roundtable Discussion on “Chemical and Thermal Process Engineering”

On 17 and 18 March 2026, 25 representatives, including four members of the Scientific Council, from across Germany gathered for the DFG Roundtable Discussion on “Chemical and Thermal Process Engineering” in the New Senate Hall at TU Braunschweig. In addition to the latest information from the DFG Secretariat on overarching topics relating to DFG funding, statistics and the funding situation for coordinated programmes, seven proposed topics for potential priority programmes were presented and discussed.

Participants at the DFG Roundtable on “Chemical and Thermal Process Engineering” at TU Braunschweig on 17 and 18 March 2026. Photo credits: Stephan Scholl/TU Braunschweig

Following a one-year suspension on the establishment of new Priority Programmes, new applications for their establishment may be submitted again from 15 October 2026. Proposed topics included, for example, “New material combinations in evaporation and condensation processes” or “Poorly defined mixtures”. The former is of particular relevance in the context of the thermal transition in the process industry, where the integration of open and closed heat pumps is intended to increase the energy efficiency of production processes. Poorly defined mixtures occur in particular in internal or cross-process recycling procedures, in which multi-component mixtures are to be processed and valuable components recovered for recycling. Examples can be found, amongst others, in plastics or battery recycling. A further thematic focus concerned research questions from electrochemistry and electrochemical process engineering.

As almost all of these issues require collaboration across different disciplines, the next DFG Roundtable on ‘Chemical and Thermal Process Engineering’ is to be held in 2027 in conjunction with the ‘Systems Process Engineering’ Research Council.