22 years Wood K plus Kompetenzzentrum Holz GmbH

22 years Kompetenzzentrum Holz GmbH – 22 years Wood K plus

22 years characterised by curiosity, creativity and passion for new things, process-oriented thinking and independent action have always led the Kompetenzzentrum Holz GmbH – Wood K plus to innovative solutions in the fields of wood chemistry, composites, solid wood and surfaces in all its projects.

This success and 22 years of existence were now duly celebrated on 22 September 2022 at its site in Tulln (A).

Prior to the celebration, a top-class scientific symposium with lectures on “Perspectives for a sustainable bioeconomy” took place. In the evening, Managing Director Boris Hultsch welcomed around 200 guests, including representatives of partner companies, universities, public authorities, owners and funding bodies as well as employees. In the course of the talks, the visitors not only learned about the highlights and important milestones of the last 22 years, but were also given a glimpse into the future of the competence center and wood as a material in general, in addition to musical accompaniment.

Wood K plus recently won the COMET tender and was awarded a research programme worth €23 million. The celebration ended with a festive buffet. At the same time, sufficient attention was paid to the idea of networking.

COMET tender – Wood K plus prevails!

Award of ~23 million € for research on sustainable materials and process technology for the circular economy and bioeconomy

The Kompetenzzentrum Holz GmbH – Wood K plus has been conducting excellent research in the field of sustainable materials and process technologies for companies in cooperation with universities for 22 years. With key topics such as renewable raw materials, circular economy and bioeconomy, Wood K plus makes a decisive contribution towards the ecological transformation of industry. Wood K plus was once again able to assert this pioneering role by impressively winning the tender for COMET K1 Centers carried out by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) in a competitive procedure. The proposed projects and measures received top marks from the international and national experts.

The sustainable use of biobased raw materials, energy-optimised manufacturing processes and a continuous cycle bioeconomy are the central focal points of the research programme “WOOD – Transition to a sustainable bioeconomy”. To this end, the programme focuses on efficient biorefinery solutions such as the recycling of by-products and residual flows as well as the production of biobased chemicals, solvents and basic components.

Around 120 researchers at Wood K plus develop biobased functionalised materials – such as new wood-based materials for furniture and construction, high-performance carbon materials, sustainable packaging, high-quality fibres, thermal insulation and natural composite materials for many applications, e.g. vehicles and wind power plants. There is also a focus on improving the carbon footprint of the construction sector. One hundred percent biobased composite and wood-based materials are to further massively increase durability and functionality in timber construction. Using raw materials efficiently, protecting the environment and increasing productivity – digitalisation is playing an increasingly important role in this. To link biobased materials with digitalisation, Wood K plus relies on the use of new technologies such as Big Data, Data Driven Modelling & Simulation.

Research is carried out together with 34 company partners and 15 scientific partners – including many well-known Austrian and international partners – at three locations in Linz (headquarters), Tulln and St. Veit an der Glan. One half of the funding for the center, with a total volume of 22.7 million euros in the next funding period of four years, is provided by the public sector with the federal ministries BMK and BMAW (30 %) and the provinces of Carinthia, Lower Austria and Upper Austria (15 %) as well as the universities (5 %). The other half is financed by the participating partner companies. In addition, Wood K plus participates in many national and international tenders – in the last six months alone, six projects with a total volume of over € 2 million were acquired in the Horizon Europe programme.

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For further information please contact:

DI Boris Hultsch
Managing Director
Kompetenzzentrum Holz GmbH, Altenberger Straße 69, 4040 Linz, Austria,
b.hultsch@wood-kplus.at
www.wood-kplus.at