About us
The Institute for Energy and Mobility Research (IEM) employs around 15 professors and 50 staff. Research takes place in ten laboratories, and more than one laboratory is often involved in the same project.
Organisation
The Institute for Energy and Mobility Research is organised around its laboratories, each of which houses specific facilities. Each lab has its own head, who is responsible for the focus and management of the facilities. Researchers at the Institute move freely in this environment and are therefore able to access the ideal facilities for their project and research work. This freedom of movement also encourages an exchange of ideas among researchers and helps promote the interdisciplinary collaboration required for more demanding projects.
Swiss Competence Centres for Energy Research (SCCER)
The national network of SCCER brings together specialist knowledge from various academic institutions. The focus of the Centres is on developing expertise in the field of energy technologies and on supporting collaboration with industry partners. Their remit is to find solutions for technical, social and political problems arising from the energy revolution. The SCCER are involved in seven different fields of activity, all of which are based on research topics that are central to the sustainable implementation of the 2050 Energy Strategy. They encourage universities to share their energy-related research activities and to work closely with business.
The seven fields of activity are:
- Efficiency
- Grids and their components, energy systems
- Storage
- Electricity supply, delivery of electrical energy
- Economy, environment, law, behaviour
- Efficient concepts, processes and components in the field of mobility
- Biomass
IEM is involved in these three fields of activity:
- Efficient mobility concepts, processes and components – SCCER Efficiency in Mobility: in the field Systems and Components for E-Mobility, IEM offers expertise in characterisation, technology assessment and the development of cutting-edge electrochemical energy storage systems.
- Grids and their components, energy systems – SCCER FURIES – Future Swiss Electrical Infrastructure: IEM supports this SCCER with its expertise in measuring and analysing voltage quality in distribution grids with decentralised generation and storage of energy.
- Storage – SCCER Heat – Electricity Storage: in this SCCER, IEM is researching the development of new, sustainable and cost-effective production technologies for high-performance battery cells.
Note
Five of the ten IEM laboratories work with the Energy Storage Research Centre. This interdepartmental competence centre at Bern University of Applied Sciences was set up to research and develop technologies for energy converters and energy storage systems. It was created in 2016 in partnership with the Institute for Intelligent Industrial Systems (I3S), the Institute for Corporate Development (INU) and the partner institution CSEM SA. It is involved in three of the seven Swiss Competence Centres for Energy Research (SCCER).
Partnerships
Universities
With its applied research collaborations and development partnerships, IEM also fosters close ties with various universities, particularly KMU.
We are currently collaborating with the following universities:
Our excellent contacts mean that we are able to arrange student and lecturer exchanges with Sun Yat-sen University.
Spin-offs
The spin-off companies below resulted from IEM research projects and were founded by IEM researchers:
