State Secretary Gert Zender today presented grant awards totaling approximately 3.8 million euros to the city of Mücheln, Merseburg University of Applied Sciences, and the German Hemp Academy e. V. for the establishment of a hemp information and competence center at Geiseltalsee. The project is 100 percent funded by the European Just Transition Fund (JTF) as part of the state initiative for the New European Bauhaus (NEB).
State Secretary Gert Zender: “Future-oriented projects arising from structural change offer space for ideas that will benefit our region in the long term. That is exactly what this project at Geiseltalsee stands for. With the new information and competence center, we are generating knowledge, promoting innovation, and opening up new opportunities for our region. Hemp as a building material may sound unusual at first glance, but it holds great potential for sustainable construction and new value creation. In this way, we’re creating opportunities for people and demonstrating that structural change can work in very concrete ways. I am convinced that Saxony-Anhalt is a land of opportunity. We have bright minds, good ideas, and strong regions. If we continue to move forward courageously, our state will remain a place where people can live well, work well, and feel at home.”
The goal of the project is to make the ecological and economic potential of industrial hemp as a sustainable resource visible, usable, and accessible, as well as to raise awareness of sustainable material cycles.
At the heart of the project will be an experimental construction workshop where experts and laypeople alike can attend seminars to learn about working with hemp as a building material and receive hands-on instruction on its use in construction.