INM GmbH

What INM GmbH does

INM GmbH (legally INM – Leibniz-Institut für Neue Materialien gGmbH) is a German non-profit research institute founded in 1987 and headquartered on the Saarland University campus in Saarbrücken. It is owned 51% by Universität des Saarlandes and 49% by the state of Saarland, and operates as part of the Leibniz Association. The institute employs 256 staff from 40 nationalities (2025) and conducts interdisciplinary materials science across three strategic pillars: Biointelligent Materials, Electrointegrative Materials, and Optointeractive Materials.

INM's research output includes Living Therapeutic Materials (hydrogels embedding programmed bacteria or fungi for on-demand in-body drug production, including self-moisturizing contact lenses for dry eye treatment), tailored MXenes for selective lithium extraction from brines and seawater, sinter-free conductive inks for printed electronics, gecko-inspired adhesive polymer surfaces, and I-Seed fluorescent biodegradable sensors for drone-based soil monitoring. Underpinning these are 48 active patent families, 90 peer-reviewed publications in 2025, and four Core Facilities (Accelerated Research Foundry, Chemical Analytics, Electron Microscopy, Fluorescence Microscopy). Scientific leadership comprises Scientific Directors Prof. Wilfried Weber (Chair, appointed 2023) and Prof. Aránzazu del Campo Bécares (CEO), with Michael Marx as Business Director.

INM does not operate as a commercial enterprise. Revenue is derived from (i) multi-year institutional base funding from federal and Saarland governments (€145M approved for 2025-2031), (ii) third-party competitive grants (€7.03M in 2025 from DFG, BMBF, EU, Leibniz Association), (iii) contract research and custom materials development for industrial partners (e.g., functional inks for printed electronics), and (iv) technology licensing and transfer via the InnovationCenter INM. The 2025 annual budget totals €30.62M. International collaboration spans EU doctoral networks, partnerships with Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Chinese Academy of Sciences, DKFZ, UCSB, and the University of Namibia, with conference participation drawing attendees from 13+ countries.

Name

INM GmbH

Legal name

INM – Leibniz-Institut für Neue Materialien gGmbH

Website

https://leibniz-inm.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1987

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

INM GmbH is a non-profit Leibniz-Association materials science research institute in Saarbrücken, Germany, employing 256 staff across Biointelligent, Electrointegrative, and Optointeractive Materials programs, with technology transfer to industry and medicine via the InnovationCenter INM.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Materials Science Research

NAICS

Research and Development in Nanotechnology (541713), Medical Equipment and Supplies Manufacturing (3391), Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516), Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing (32541)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Industrial Organic Chemicals (2860), Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826)

akta.pro primary industry

Specialty Polymers & Resins (Engineered Materials) (IMAEABAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Conductive/ESD & EMI-Shielding Compounds (IMANABAH), Display & Optoelectronics Chemicals (OLED/LCD materials, polarizer chemicals) (IMAEAKAN)

Keywords

• Materials science research
• Functional nanocomposites
• Biointelligent materials
• Printed electronics inks
• Lithium extraction materials

Headquarters

HQ city

Saarbrücken

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Public Research Funding: INM receives base funding from federal and state governments through the Leibniz Association. For 2025-2031, approximately 145 million euros has been approved for continued operations.
2. Third-Party Funding (Drittmittel): Research projects funded by external sources including DFG, EU programs, and government ministries. In 2025, 7.03 million euros in third-party funding was secured.
3. Technology Transfer and Licensing: Transfer of research results into medical and industrial applications through the InnovationCenter INM, including licensing of developed technologies.
4. Contract Research: Research and development services for companies, including custom functional inks for printed electronics and materials consulting.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

INM conducts interdisciplinary research and develops innovative materials from chemical and biological building blocks across three strategic pillars: Biointelligent Materials, Electrointegrative Materials, and Optointeractive Materials. Core offerings include Living Therapeutic Materials for drug delivery, custom functional inks for printed electronics, MXenes for lithium extraction, bio-inspired adhesive surfaces, and active nanocomposites. The InnovationCenter INM facilitates technology transfer to industrial and medical applications through licensing and contract research.

Product overview

INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials is a materials science research institute, not a commercial product company. Its offerings consist of research programs, technologies, and services developed through its eight research departments and multiple research groups. The core research platforms include Living Therapeutic Materials (LTM) integrating programmed living cells for on-demand drug delivery, and various functional materials such as custom functional inks for printed electronics, MXenes for lithium extraction, and opto-interactive materials. Research infrastructure services are provided through four Core Facilities (Accelerated Research Foundry, Chemical Analytics, Electron Microscopy, Fluorescence Microscopy). Technology transfer is facilitated through the InnovationCenter INM. The institute collaborates with academic and industrial partners to drive sustainable technologies and solve societal challenges through materials innovation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Living Therapeutic Materials (LTM) Materials integrating specially programmed living cells (bacteria or fungi) embedded in hydrogels that produce and release therapeutic agents on demand within the body, developed for personalized drug delivery applications for medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies.
• Self-Moisturizing Contact Lens Medical device in the form of a contact lens containing living therapeutic materials that produces hyaluronic acid on demand for treatment of dry eyes, eliminating the need for conventional eye drops with low bioavailability. Developed for medical institutions and patients with dry eye conditions.
• Custom Functional Inks for Printed Electronics Specialized conductive and functional inks developed for printed electronics applications, enabling flexible, bendable, and cost-effective electronic circuits on various substrates for printed electronics manufacturers.
• Selective Lithium Extraction with MXenes Tailored MXene materials for electrochemical lithium-ion extraction from complex aqueous resources such as brines, process waters, and industrial streams, supporting sustainable battery material supply for energy sector companies.
• Acer I-Seed Environmental Sensors Eco-friendly fluorescent artificial seed sensors mimicking maple seed aerodynamics, 3D-printed from biocompatible and compostable materials for monitoring soil temperature using drones, for environmental monitoring entities.
• Sinter-Free Conductive Ink Gold and silver nanoparticle-based conductive ink coated with conductive polymers enabling inkjet printing of conductive structures without thermal or UV treatments, for flexible electronics manufacturers.
• Light-Controlled Bio-Based OptoAssays Diagnostic testing methods using simple LEDs to replace complex mechanical pumps for medical diagnostics, inspired by biological principles and developed for easier, cost-effective disease diagnosis for healthcare providers.
• InnovationCenter INM Technology Transfer Services Internal technology transfer service evaluating specific medical and industrial scenarios for INM technology deployment, supporting licensing, contract research, and commercialization of research outcomes for enterprise partners.
• Core Facilities Research Infrastructure Services Shared research infrastructure services across four facilities: Accelerated Research Foundry, Chemical Analytics, Electron Microscopy, and Fluorescence Microscopy, providing specialized analytical and characterization capabilities to internal researchers and external academic and industrial partners.

Quantifiable outcome

• Less than 5% of topical eye medications typically reach the eye when administered as drops; Living Therapeutic Materials can address this delivery challenge
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025ICMR Undergraduate Research Internship Program providing scholarships for research internships at UCSB as part of international exchange.
• Chinese Academy of Sciences ShanghaicoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Collaboration on electrochemical lithium extraction from seawater, published in ACS Energy Letters.
• Saarland University (UdS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2024Joint research through the Leibniz ScienceCampus 'Living Therapeutic Materials' with €400,000 contribution. Close cooperation on materials science research with joint appointments including Junior Professor Viktor Zaverkin and Professor Eduard Arzt.
• Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2024Pharmaceutical Research Alliance Saarland partner contributing €400,000 to Living Therapeutic Materials research. Contributes expertise in therapeutically relevant components research.
• Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2023Co-development of I-Seed eco-friendly fluorescent artificial seeds for environmental monitoring. INM contributed materials expertise for biocompatible and compostable 3D-printed sensors. Published in Science Advances.
• German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) HeidelbergcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Research cooperation on HER2-positive breast cancer using liquid-phase scanning transmission electron microscopy to study drug interactions with cancer cells.
• Saarland Automotive Delegation / saarisminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 January 2019Joint exhibition at DIFA 2019 in Daegu, South Korea as part of Saarland innovation delegation to showcase automotive-related materials research.
• University of Namibia (UNAM)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018NaMiComp cooperation project analyzing Namibia's natural resources for new materials for industrial applications. Long-term goal of building on-site materials science institute.
• Hochschule für Bildende Künste Saar (HBK Saar)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Student cooperation project 'Material in the Process' where design students study innovative materials and develop usage concepts and prototypes.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Vorbeck Materials: Vorbeck Materials is a commercial developer of conductive inks and graphene-based materials for printed electronics, with technology positioned for sinter-free flexible conductive printing. This directly overlaps with INM's sinter-free gold/silver nanoparticle conductive ink platform for printed electronics applications.
• Empa: Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. Empa is a publicly funded applied research institution that, like INM, conducts interdisciplinary materials science spanning nanomaterials, biointerfaces, energy materials, and surface engineering, with a similar technology-transfer mandate bridging academic research and industrial application.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL): ORNL is a major U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory with extensive programs in advanced materials, energy storage, and nanomaterials. Comparable in scale and breadth to INM, ORNL pursues both fundamental research and licensed commercialization of materials innovations, including battery and energy-related technology areas where INM also operates.
• Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research: MPI for Polymer Research is one of the world's leading institutes for polymer and soft matter science, located in Mainz. Like INM, it is part of a German publicly funded research framework (Max Planck Society vs. Leibniz), operates with joint university appointments, and pursues fundamental-to-applied research on specialty polymers and functional materials.
• National Physical Laboratory (NPL): NPL is the United Kingdom's national metrology institute, providing measurement standards and applied materials science research. Like INM, NPL operates a publicly funded research mandate with strong international collaboration and technology transfer, and shares focus on materials characterization and functional materials.
• Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM): Fraunhofer IFAM is a major German publicly funded applied research institute with deep capabilities in functional materials, surface technology, adhesives, and shaping/manufacturing. Like INM, it operates within a German public research framework (Fraunhofer vs. Leibniz) and pursues contract research and licensing with industrial partners.

Broad incumbents

• Arkema: Arkema is a major French specialty materials company with significant R&D and product portfolios in specialty polymers, adhesives, and advanced materials. As a broad incumbent, Arkema competes in many of the same downstream specialty materials categories where INM is commercializing technology, and is a realistic licensing/competition counterpart.

Emerging players

• Gelesis: Gelesis develops biomaterial-based hydrogels for oral therapeutics in metabolic and gastrointestinal diseases. The hydrogel biomaterials platform is conceptually similar to INM's Living Therapeutic Materials approach of embedding functional living systems within hydrogel scaffolds for in-body therapeutic activity.
• Novome Biotechnologies: Novome Biotechnologies engineers living microbial therapeutics for chronic disease. Its work on engineered living bacterial interventions is materially relevant to INM's Living Therapeutic Materials research, which embeds programmed bacteria within hydrogels to produce therapeutic agents in vivo.

Others

• MAX IV Laboratory: MAX IV is a Swedish national synchrotron radiation facility used for advanced materials characterization. INM's Electron Microscopy and Chemical Analytics core facilities offer comparable analytical infrastructure services to materials science researchers and industrial partners, making MAX IV an adjacent/ecosystem peer in advanced materials characterization.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCDfa7zr00k6uZBODZjG4NnQ
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/inm-leibniz-institute-for-new-materials
• Instagraminstagram.com/leibniz_inm

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about INM GmbH