The Center for the Transformation of Chemistry (CTC) is Germany’s first research center for circular chemistry. The flagship project has temporarily moved into the CityLab Leipzig (CLL) on Leipzig’s BioCity Campus, before it finds a more permanent home in Delitzsch and Merseburg at a future date. The CLL is a brand new hub for digital health research and the life sciences, offering modern office and lab spaces on 8,600 m². It’s already home to thinktank Health Innovators Group Leipzig and software company DOCYET.

This close proximity to innovative neighbors is one of the unique features of Leipzig’s life science ecosystem. Leipzig University and a network of non-university institutions ensure that research quickly transfers into practical applications. The City of Leipzig also offers generous financial and organizational support to innovators. For example, it allocated two million euros to help get the CTC set up in the CLL. The building’s labs are operated by the municipal subsidiary Leipziger Gewerbehof GmbH (LGH) which is also building a new innovation center nearby.

At its new home in Saxony, the CTC is working on a visionary goal: To transform the chemical industry into a sustainable circular economy, in partnership with industry and society at large. Circular chemistry aims to minimize waste and resource use by keeping materials in continuous cycles through reuse, recycling, and regeneration. The CTC’s international team of experts is currently focusing on two moonshot projects. They want to develop a fully recyclable car, as well as an intelligent lab that can plan and carry out experiments on its own. So for the time being, Leipzig is the ideal environment for these researchers working on creating a more sustainable future for all of us.

The City Lab Leipzig at Puschstraße 6a–6b on the BioCity Campus © Vollack Group.

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