Our goal is to make an active contribution to the further development of devices and methods for chemical analysis. To this end, new methods are prototyped, characterised and evaluated with regard to their analytical performance. This includes selective, case-specific approaches as well as broad, non-specific chemical sensors. In the development of new instruments, the focus is on sample throughput and possible integration into networked systems. To this end, (partially) automated sample management and digital reuse of the acquired data are always taken into account when designing the new methods. The devices are integrated into the investigation of real current issues in close cooperation with other BAM divisions. This synergy enables a targeted identification of the current development fields of modern instrumental analytics.