The Institute for Micro Process Engineering (IMVT) is one of the leading academic research institutions in the field of micro process engineering worldwide. An international team of 64 employees specialized in various disciplines focuses on the construction and fabrication of microstructured devices, on fundamental studies of transport processes and chemical reactions in microstructures, and on the use of prototypes in selected thermal and chemical processes. Apart from research projects financed from basic funds under the Helmholtz programmes, projects funded by third parties are being executed in cooperation with industry and academic research institutions in Germany and abroad.

The IMVT was founded in July 2001 with the objective of enhancing the use of novel microstructures in modern process engineering. Foundation of IMVT had been preceded by innovative studies relating to the fabrication of metal microstructured devices and their use in process engineering at the former Central Experimentation Department and before at the Institute for Nuclear Process Technology of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. IMVT and its precursor department had been headed by Dr. Klaus Schubert since the late eighties.