Rethinking Tribology–Tracking Trends, Their Presence at the ECOTRIB 2019 Conference, and Their Impact on Tribology Research in Austria

Economic and societal changes and technological development guide the focus of tribology research. “Classical” tasks, such as the improvement of materials or the tuning of a lubricant, have long been replaced by a function-oriented aggregate design, including specifications defined by needs arising from production and the environment. Tribology faces, among other remarkable changes, a paradigm shift according to the tendency to replace classic internal combustion engine (ICE) drivetrains with electric drives. How tribology will develop, and which research topics will prevail in the future, are being explored by several studies based on the experience of experts. The variety of contributions to journals and conferences provide an indicator of the importance of such tasks or topics. Here, a report on the ECOTRIB 2019—7th European Conference on Tribology held in Vienna, Austria, is presented. From the available information, an even stronger integration of other disciplines into tribology is noticeable, with certain hype in the fields of advanced material technology, sensor integration and the implementation of data science. Measures to rethink tribology from both an organizational and scientific point of view to cope with future tasks are being targeted and comprehensively implemented in the current research program “InTribology”, operated by the Austrian Center of Competence for Tribology (AC²T) in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.