BMWi publishes lightweight construction strategy

Today, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) published a lightweight construction strategy for Germany as an industrial location.

Parliamentary State Secretary Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker: "Lightweight construction is a cross-sectional technology with a lot of potential: It drives innovation in many industrial sectors and is important when it comes to achieving our climate and sustainability goals. Above all, lightweight technologies are crucial for the sustainable transformation of the mobility sector and for the expansion of renewable energies. With the lightweight construction strategy, we want to help further expand Germany's good position in lightweight construction."

Lightweight construction leads to lower costs and improved functionalities via lower material use. The lower mass also means that less energy is consumed during use of the lightweight product and CO2 emissions are reduced. Lightweight construction thus ideally combines the three dimensions of sustainability: economy, ecology and social aspects.

With its lightweight construction strategy, the BMWi aims to improve the framework conditions in order to make even better use of the opportunities offered by this technology and to mobilize its potential for achieving climate and sustainability targets. To this end, packages of measures are presented in the following fields:

• Optimize funding policy framework conditions for start-ups and SMEs,
• Strengthening the lightweight construction network,
• Promoting education and training,
• Strengthening technology transfer through standardization and harmonization,
• R&D priorities for sustainable, resource-efficient lightweight construction,
• Promote digitization,
• Expand digital infrastructures and
• Resource-efficient lightweight construction as an enabler for the energy transition.

The strategy is based on an extensive consultation process involving more than 350 representatives from industry and science. The result of this bottom-up process is a key issues paper (PDF, 365 KB) from industry and science that has played a major role in shaping the BMWi's lightweight construction strategy.

Source and photo: BMWi