International Joint Research Labs

In International Joint Research Labs (IJRLs), our scientists cooperate with scientifically excellent colleagues at renowned international universities. The IJRLs provide a framework for joint research activities of several scientists from all participating partners in a subject area defined jointly with international partners.

An International Joint Research Lab is a cooperation between TU Darmstadt and another university or public nonuniversity research institution (bilateral) or with several universities or public nonuniversity research institutions (multilateral). The basis for establishing an International Joint Research Lab is often already comprised of existing individual cooperations that are to be broadened or intensified within a Joint Research Lab. An agreement to develop a joint IJRL expresses at least a medium-term mutual commitment. IJRLs represent a form of strategic research cooperation with excellent international partners, which should contribute to making them more visible.

The IJRLs complement our strategic partnerships with selected international universities, spanning several departments, fields of activity (research, teaching, xchange) and status groups. Our extensive cooperations with nonscientific institutions are part of our xchange programme.

Overview IJRLs at TU Darmstadt

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Our International Joint Research Labs

Since 2023

In a first round of calls in early 2023, the five IJRLs were established (Architecture Criticism and Heritage, Digital Twins in Product Development, Ions at Interfaces, Memristor Technology, Sustainable Road and Air Mobility). Thus, both already-established and newly-established research collaborations will be granted the status of an IJRL.

The International Joint Research Lab (IJRL) “Architecture Criticism and Heritage” analyzes the role of architectural theory and criticism in dealing with architectural heritage and and ascribing political, professional and cultural values to them, with a special focus on questions of social, ecological and economic sustainability. The complex global challenges of climate change, resource scarcity, and urbanization cannot be met by new technologies alone, but must be integrated politically, socially, culturally, and not least spatially. Heritage buildings and historic infrastructures are key elements on the way to a sustainable built environment that improves people’s participation and quality of life. “Architecture Criticism and Heritage” explores the built environment and interrogates its potential for a sustainable future. In this way, the IJRL addresses acute questions such as those currently being pursued by the EU’s “New European Bauhaus” initiative with its focus on “enriching, sustainable, and inclusive spaces.” The project expands on existing research collaborations between the Center for Critical Studies in Architecture (CCSA), the Mapping Architecture Criticism network at Université Rennes 2 and Politecnico di Milano, and the Cultural Landscape Research Group at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The CCSA is a cooperation between the Department of Architecture at the Technical Universiy of Darmstadt, the Institute of Art History at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, established in 2017.

Prof. Dr. Christiane Salge, History of Architecture and Art History
Dr. Lisa Beißwanger, Architecture Theory and Science & History of Architecture and Art History
Dr. Frederike Lausch, History of Architecture and Art History

(International) Partner Institutions

Architekturmuseum (Deutschland)
Fachhochschule Dortmund (Deutschland)
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt (Deutschland)
Politecnico di Milano (Italien)
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spanien)
Universität Kassel (Deutschland)
Université Rennes 2 – Haute Bretagne (Frankreich)

Main Contact at the TU Darmstadt

Prof. Dr. Christiane Salge
History of Architecture and Art
Department of Architecture

As a virtual representation of a physical product or product-service system, digital twins can find applications in various phases of product creation and support secure and sustainable product development. Thus, Digital Twins can contribute to a more efficient use of resources, to an increase in flexibility in value creation processes, and to the linking and mastering of data. The IJRL brings together researchers who explore applications of the digital twin throughout the product lifecycle, from materials to manufacturing and product use. The IJRL serves to strengthen the already existing scientific relationship between the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), the ENS Paris-Saclay, the Chalmers University of Technology and the Technische Universität Darmstadt and aims to expand the spectrum of scientific cooperation.

(International) Partner Institutions

Chalmers University of Technology (Schweden)
École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay (Frankreich)
Universidade de São Paulo (Brasilien)

Main Contact at the TU Darmstadt

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Benjamin Schleich
Product Life Cycle Management
Department of Mechanical Engineering

The IJRL “Ions at Interfaces” is aimed at a better understanding of the interaction of various ion types with technologically and biologically relevant interfaces. Applications include the stabilization of foams, the recovery of heavy metals from industrial or nuclear waste, or the ion-specific generation of surface charges on biological membranes. The involved research groups address these and related aspects with mutually complementary experimental and theoretical methods. In the experimental domain, purposefully prepared interfaces are exposed to the influence of typical and atypical ion types under well-defined conditions. Such samples can then be characterized comprehensively with the help of scattering techniques with light, x-ray, or neutron radiation, or by measuring interfacial forces. Atomistic computer simulations and thermodynamic modeling of the phenomena investigated, once validated with the experimental data, provide additional mechanistic insights that are crucial for our understanding but would not be accessible with experiments alone.

International Partner Institution

Institut de Chimie Séparative de Marcoule (Frankreich)

Main Contact at the TU Darmstadt

Prof. Dr. Emanuel Schneck
Institute for Condensed Matter Physics
Department of Physics

The IiJRL „Memristor Technology“ pursues the goal to progress on relevant aspects of the fundamentals, technology and exploitation of memristive devices. It addresses the materials properties and defect structure of several kinds of memristor realizations based on oxide, magnetic and ferroelectric materials. From the application side, it covers several novel computing schemes using memristors to increase energy efficiency, including field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), neuromorphic computation and processing-in-memory. From the analysis and modelling side, a unique selling point is to encompass all relevant scales from density functional theory, multi-phase and compact modelling as well as circuit design. The experimental analysis correlates advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods with physical models used for compact simulation of model device and array behavior. Thereby, the iJRL establishes a methodology from innovative materials to single devices and arrays up to the circuit level that can be transferred to novel emerging materials in this fast-developing field also for interested partners in the field of electronic material and semiconductor industry.

(International) Partner Institutions

Goethe-Universität Frankfurt (Deutschland)
National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan)
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spanien)

Main Contact at the TU Darmstadt

Prof. Dr. Lambert Alff
Institute for Materials Science
Department of Materials Science and Geosciences

The IJRL Sustainable Road and Air Mobility conducts research in the field of methodological principles and innovative concepts for sustainable mobility on the road and in the air. This includes application-oriented research of efficient and lightweight drives and structural technologies for the mobility of the future. A reduction in mass generally leads to a higher sensitivity to vibrations, which may cause an increase in sound radiation and noise. Therefore, additional vibration and vibroacoustic aspects are considered in order to maintain the comfort of conventional solutions. In addition to the structural-mechanical topics, fundamental fluid mechanic aspects are also investigated such as aerodynamic phenomena that occur in modern vehicles. This basic research serves to deepen the understanding of specific non-linear phenomena in fluid flows from which procedures are derived that should enable a numerical simulation of these fluid phenomena. Overall, a comprehensive examination of vehicles in air and road traffic takes place in various aspects, from which measures for the sustainable design of the mobility of the future can be derived. The IJRL serves to strengthen the already existing scientific relationship between the École Central de Lyon and the Technical University of Darmstadt and aims to expand the scope of scientific cooperation.

(International) Partner Institutions

École Centrale de Lyon (Frankreich)
Fraunhofer-Institut für Betriebsfestigkeit und Systemzuverlässigkeit LBF (Deutschland)

Main Contact at the TU Darmstadt

Prof. Dr. Stephan Rinderknecht
Institute of Mechatronic Systems
Mechatronics (MEC)

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