We're approaching the end of our series WHAT HIGHTECH IS MADE OF with Plastics Europe Deutschland — and there's one big question we still need to answer:
If Germany has world-class research and engineering, why is turning innovation into industrial reality still so difficult?
In this episode of, we speak with Prof. Dr. Manfred Renner and Prof. Dr. Matthias Franke from Fraunhofer Umsicht about what happens between a promising scientific breakthrough and a technology that actually works at scale.
And surprisingly, the biggest obstacles aren't always technological.
We discuss:
Why promising recycling technologies struggle to move from pilot projects to industrial scale
Why trust, regulatory certainty and investment confidence are just as important as innovation itself
What Fraunhofer's chemical recycling map reveals about the gap between ambition and reality
Why collaboration across the entire value chain is essential to make circular solutions work
The key takeaway? Great research is only the beginning. Without reliable frameworks, market demand and the confidence to invest, even the best technologies can remain stuck in the lab.
Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!
