Annual Report 2025 online

Dear readers,

Research demonstrates its value when scientific findings are transformed into solutions for industry and society. This understanding has been shaping the work of IMMS since its foundation – and has also guided our activities in 2025. 

The 2025 financial year was characterised by challenging economic conditions. The economic situation in Thüringen and Germany remained tense. At the same time, institutional funding from Thüringen was reduced. These funds are of great importance for the general operation and preliminary scientific research carried out by IMMS. Closing the resulting funding gap therefore presented a considerable challenge. 

The significant increase in industrial contract research has enabled us to bridge the funding gap. Alongside the positive economic performance in 2025, this demonstrates that our research addresses the current challenges in industry and among SMEs. Drawing on our expertise in technology transfer, we work with our partners to develop tailor-made solutions with immediate benefits.

This development confirms that we are on the right track, which we have been following in recent years. We focus our scientific work on topics of high technological and economic relevance, combining scientific excellence with a consistent transfer to practical application. Through numerous new research and development projects, we have been able to further strengthen our three strategic research fields and expand our collaboration with companies and scientific partners.

A particular milestone in 2025 was the launch of the VirtuSen early-career research group, which is funded by Thüringen. It brings together expertise from several research fields at IMMS and opens up new opportunities to further enhance the precision of high-accuracy positioning systems through AI-based virtual sensor technology. In addition, we have made significant progress in many other projects. We present a few examples of these in this annual report.

Scientific success is always the result of teamwork. That is why I am particularly pleased about the awards that young scientists from IMMS received last year in recognition of their research achievements. They are a great example of the high level of commitment and expertise demonstrated by our employees.

The year 2025 also brought personnel changes. New colleagues have now joined our institute, whilst others have moved on to new career paths. I would particularly like to thank my long-standing colleague, the Managing Director Prof. Dr Ralf Sommer, who left IMMS in autumn and is now focusing once again fully on his duties as a university lecturer at Ilmenau TU. I would like to thank him personally for our trusting and constructive collaboration and wish him all the best for the future.

I would like to thank all IMMS employees, our funding bodies, clients and our partners from the academic and business communities. Their trust, ideas and commitment form the basis of our shared success.

I look forward to our journey together and hope you enjoy reading our report.

Martin Eberhardt, Managing Director