The Leibniz Institute for Catalysis e. V. at the University of Rostock is one of the largest publicly funded catalysis institutes in Europe and occupies a position at the interface between basic research and applications. It thus defines its main task in the environment of application-oriented basic research and promotes industrial implementations. At the Institute, the classical boundaries between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis are consistently dismantled in favour of an overarching science oriented towards materials and methods. In addition, the interdisciplinary interaction between inorganic, organic and technical chemistry and technical chemistry, nanosciences, physical chemistry and process engineering play an important role.