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AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and Takeda were honored with the DECA Award Industry 2025 at the Austrian Energy Efficiency Congress for the pioneering NEFI project AHEAD (Advanced Heat Pump Demonstrator). The award recognises the outstanding technological innovation of the first industrial high-temperature heat pump demonstrator, which enables CO₂-free steam generation for pharmaceutical production processes – a milestone for the sustainable transformation of energy-intensive industries.

How elastomers can be recycled more efficiently in future and how circularity in the rubber and hose industry can be achieved were the core themes of the Rubber Recycling – Open Innovation Workshop which took place on September 9^th, 2025, at Business Upper Austria in Linz. Representatives from industry, research, and the recycling sector collaborated on new solutions for sustainable value chains – from raw material sourcing and manufacturing through to the reintegration of used products.

Hydrogen is more than merely an energy carrier; it is a key enabler of tomorrow’s climate-neutral industrial landscape. The NEFI Technology Talk “Hydrogen Valley meets NEFI – Best Practices for Austria’s H₂ Future”, hosted by Business Upper Austria, centred precisely on this future: How can Austria strategically leverage its hydrogen potential, accelerate innovation, and assume a leading position within Europe?

How CO₂ can be used as a raw material in future industrial processes was the central topic of the NEFI Technology Talk “CO₂ as a Resource – Technologies and Opportunities”, held on October 16^th, 2025, at the Technical University of Leoben. Researchers, industry representatives, and funding institutions discussed current developments, challenges, and future perspectives. The Climate and Energy Fund also presented new funding programmes and provided valuable impulses for the development of innovative projects.

With the current RTI initiative “Transformation of Industry”, the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund – endowed with resources from the Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI) – is providing 60 million euros to support Austrian companies in the development and implementation of climate-neutral solutions and cutting-edge technologies.

We need more energy in the future but less CO₂. Direct current aims to make both possible.

By 2030, global energy demand will increase by 30%. The challenge lies in meeting this growing demand without burning fossil fuels, says Hartwig Stemmberger, Manager at Eaton Technologies, during the NEFI (New Energy for Industry) conference in Vienna. However, existing energy grids are already reaching their limits, and expansion projects in Europe often take decades. For him, a viable approach is the expansion of DC in industry.