AUFBRUCH unites three universities, three universities of applied sciences, one research institution, and one innovation network for the first time in a future-oriented graduate cluster, funded with 12.5 million euros by the BMBF.

The Rhenish mining area has the vision of quickly becoming a model region for a sustainable and competitive bioeconomy. The graduate cluster AUFBRUCH aims to empower young people in their doctoral studies to seize the momentum for change and help shape the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy. AUFBRUCH is named as one of 31 projects of the 19 anchor projects that are central to the successful, rapid, and visible implementation of structural change from the perspective of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Sustainability is one of the central criteria for a successful bioeconomy, but by no means an automatic consequence. According to the United Nations, "an economically, socially, and ecologically sustainable future" is required. In AUFBRUCH, a consortium of eight partners in and around the Rhenish mining area has been assembled for this purpose, namely RWTH Aachen University, FH Aachen, the Cluster Industrial Biotechnology (CLIB), Technische Universität Dortmund, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Forschungszentrum Jülich, TH Köln, and Hochschule Niederrhein. Thus, AUFBRUCH represents expertise from biotechnology, chemistry, process engineering, logistics, economics, social sciences, and spatial planning. The total of 37 funded doctoral projects, plus associated projects, are thematically assigned to one of six innovation areas, which address overarching challenges of the bioeconomy in the region using case studies.