Since its establishment in 2015, the Sustainability Center has funded a large number of research projects along the technology maturity scale.

In the LZN's pilot phase between 2015 and 2018, interdisciplinary teams from the Fraunhofer Institutes and the University of Freiburg were funded in a total of 12 pilot projects, in some cases with the participation of other research institutions such as the Hahn-Schickard-Gesellschaft and the Öko-Institut.

In the second funding phase from 2019 to 2020, a total of 8 demonstrator projects were funded on their way to application.

In the transition year 2021, another 5 pilot projects and 4 scaling projects were funded by the LZN as a continuation of the demonstrator projects.

In 2022, the Sustainability Center was finally institutionalised by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. The LZN benefited from further funding from 2022-2024 and the implementation of 2 pilot and 2 demonstrator projects.

From 2021 to 2023, a total of 3 international projects were developed in the ‘International Sustainability Center’ funding programme.

In addition, the LZN office took over the project coordination of the BMUV project I4C in 2022-2024.

Since 2025, the LZN has been in its 4th funding period (see current projects), which will continue until 2027.