The TU Chemnitz sees itself as a driver of innovation in dealing with priority tasks for the future. Against the background of global change and demographic development, progressive solutions are required that are characterized by sustainability, interdisciplinarity and social benefits. For this purpose, the TU Chemnitz has defined the three core competencies “Materials and Intelligent Systems”, “Resource-Efficient Production and Lightweight Construction” and “People and Technology” in research and teaching.

Within the "Materials and Intelligent Systems" area, innovative materials and material systems as well as new integration technologies, e.g. B. researched and developed for vehicle construction, for regenerative energy technologies and for medical technology. The special focus is on the expansion of functions through intelligent systems. The leading-edge cluster COOL SILICON, for example, provided important impetus; The Center for Microtechnologies at Chemnitz University of Technology is an important partner in the association of the same name. In addition, the "Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes" (MAIN), which is unique in Europe and financed with 34.3 million euros from federal and state funds, was opened at the TU.

Chemnitz University of Technology occupies a leading position in research in the field of "resource-efficient production and lightweight construction". The core competence in this area is underpinned in particular by the work in the central facility MERGE "Technology fusion for multifunctional lightweight structures". As part of the excellence initiative of the federal and state governments, MERGE was the first and only federal excellence cluster in the highly competitive lightweight construction technology field to be funded with around 40 million euros from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

The TU Chemnitz is characterized by interdisciplinary cooperation - also in the core competence "people and technology". One center of research cooperation in this field is the “Hybrid Societies” collaborative research center set up by the German Research Foundation, in which all eight faculties of the TU are involved. The main aim of the CRC "Hybrid Societies" is to find answers to the question of how people and autonomously acting machines can coordinate smoothly in encounters. To this end, 30 professors and leading researchers at the TU are fundamentally investigating how people are efficient and can safely interact with, for example, autonomous vehicles and robots in public space. Further examples of interdisciplinary cooperation are the competence center "Virtual Humans" and the now completed DFG graduate college "Coupling virtual and real social worlds". Excellent funding and career conditions for the junior research groups offer young scientists.

Future-oriented for the TU Chemnitz is the increasing links with companies and research institutions in the science region of Chemnitz. Together with non-university research institutions and affiliated institutes of the TU, with the city administration and partners from business, the university creates ideal conditions that combine practice-oriented training and basic and application-oriented research. The start-up network SAXEED at the TU, with the help of which more than 150 projects have been successfully launched since 2006, including 45 technology-oriented companies with high growth potential, offers good conditions for the leap from the lecture hall to self-employment. This contributed to the fact that the TU Chemnitz is considered one of the best start-up universities in Germany. Chemnitz University also provides important impulses for the cultural and social development of the city and region.

Networking is very important at the TU Chemnitz - in the economic, scientific, cultural, sporting or social environment. One example is the Smart Systems Campus, which was built in the immediate vicinity of the university campus. It includes the new building of the Institute for Physics at the TU with a clean room for the Center for Microtechnologies, the Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS, a "start-up" building and other commercial areas. The outstanding network projects of the TU Chemnitz include, for example, the innovation cluster "HZwo - Drive for Saxony" and the Smart Rail Connectivity Campus (SRCC). The main goal of the “HZwo” innovation cluster is to build a value-added network for hydrogen fuel cell technology in Saxony. The SRCC is a model project that is unique in Europe, researching sustainable and highly automated mobility and setting up a new research campus in the city of Annaberg-Buchholz. At the international level, Chemnitz University cooperates with 130 partner institutions on all continents.

For the winter semester 2020/2021 the university has 100 courses in its program. A special trademark is the high degree of interdisciplinarity. There is a special focus on students at Chemnitz University of Technology. Important fields of action in the field of teaching are the preparation and implementation of system accreditation, increasing the success of graduates with a simultaneous increase in the proportion of graduates in the standard period of study and the continuous assurance of teaching quality and anchoring of teaching methodological competence.

The conversion of the "old stock spinning mill" to the central library and the establishment of further university facilities along the tram route of the "Chemnitzer Modell" contribute to further increasing the attractiveness of the city of Chemnitz as a place to study, work and live.