The Association for Chemistry and Technology in Tanning (VGCT) was founded in 1949 in order to facilitate scientific and technical research and exchange of professional experience as well as to promote young talents.

Currently it has some 300 members – single persons as well as enterprises. In the VGCT, leather technologists, mechanical engineers, chemists and other people interested in “making leather” meet in order to exchange ideas and work together. The association offers a platform for sharing professional experience by organizing
annual meetings and professional co-operations in groups from across various companies (commissions), by facilitating technical publications in specialist press with own pages and actively participating in environmental protection, occupational safety and
health protection.

The FILK Freiberg Insitute gGmbH (formerly known as Forschungsinstitut für Leder und Kunststoffbahnen) is a non-university research organisation working on a non-profit basis for the leather, collagen and plastic sheeting industries. Once founded as first German Tanning School (1889) and first German Research Institution for the Leather Industry (1897), today FILK is a modern
and versatile organisation.
Publicly supported projects as well as customer-oriented R&D projects and services on behalf of the industry are carried out. Small and medium-sized companies are the foremost economic partners of the institute in contributing to innovative research work.
The focus is placed on transferring latest scientific findings of the specific fields into applicable and practically relevant solutions or marketable sustainable processes and technologies. Furthermore, this includes testing services, assessments, diagnosing and analysing problems, counselling and education.