The aim of the Leading-Edge Cluster Competition is to support high-performance regional clusters in Germany in developing into international leading groups. Each of the selected leading-edge clusters is supported by the State for a period of maximum five years with up to 40 million euros. Participants that made it up to the final round came from all wakes of innovative industry - from "BioEconomy" from Saxony/Saxony-Anhalt up to the "WindPowerCluster" from the north-western region of Germany. M-A-I Carbon was also among the five "chosen ones".
The Leading-Edge Cluster initiative M-A-I Carbon which was founded at the suggestion of Carbon Composites e.V. (CCeV) is made up of 72 businesses, educational and research institutions as well as organizations from the Munich-Augsburg-Ingolstadt region. The founding partners of M-A-I Carbon are: Audi, BMW, Premium AEROTEC, Eurocopter, Voith and SGL Group, as well as the IHK Schwaben, the department for carbon composites (LCC) of the TU Munich and CCeV itself. All partners are active in the technological field of fiber-reinforced composite materials, in particular in the area of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP). Emphasis is placed on the user areas automobile and aerospace as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
The main objective that M-A-I Carbon is pursuing is to make the substance carbon fit for serial production and to turn the Munich-Augsburg-Ingolstadt region into a European competence center for CFRP lightweight construction, that covers the entire value-added chain of CFRP technology and to help the partners assume a global leading position in the key technology CFRP. This could create up to 5,000 new jobs in the region.
Carbon Composites Association (Carbon Composites e.V., CCeV), an association of some 130 enterprises and research facilities, acts as a link between the fields of research and economy in the Southern German-speaking region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). The association is based in the German town of Augsburg.
CCeV serves as a network of excellence facilitating the usage of fiber-reinforced composite technologies and implementing initiatives directed at promoting the product category of marketable high-performance fiber-reinforced composites. CCeV focuses its efforts on fiber-reinforced composites (FRC) made of synthetic matrices widely known from a variety of applications, as well as FRCs using ceramic matrices with added heat and wear resistance.