The institute director, who is based in casting technology and is a professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has been at the institute's helm since it was founded in 2016. At that time, together with his colleagues Gunther Reinhart and Klaus Drechsler, he was instrumental in establishing the first Fraunhofer Institute with a production engineering focus in Bavaria.

With his many years of experience in the automotive industry, his function as head of the Chair of Metal Forming and Casting at TUM, and being responsible for the scientific area of casting technology at Fraunhofer IGCV; Wolfram Volk is striving to sharpen the strategic orientation of the institute in his new function. He says it is essential to set targeted focal points in content, continuously scrutinize these, and make even greater use of existing synergies within the three scientific areas of casting technology, composites, and processing technology. Mutual inspiration and knowledge enrichment will make it possible to translate new tasks into application-oriented solutions.

In the context of current events, the focus is primarily on agility, resilience, and sustainability - both in terms of the institute's development and its research and development services. "Nothing remains on top of each other with Corona, the complexity in global trade or the war in Ukraine," emphasizes Professor Volk. Given this, the importance of solutions that support industry partners in becoming as flexible and resilient as possible and in being able to deal agilely with the constantly changing framework conditions is increasing. Thus, in ten years, Fraunhofer IGCV should have established itself undisputedly as an essential supporter and partner of the manufacturing sector and continue to be an important member of the Fraunhofer Group for Production.