Fraunhofer founds new alliance for innovation research
Innovation research, the knowledge of the complex effects of new technologies, is critical to the success of entire economies. With its own Innovation Research Alliance, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft will in future strengthen its role in the research, technology and innovation policy dialogue with industry, politics and society.
Innovation research helps to survive in the structural change caused by technological developments. New trends can be identified and understood at an early stage through this new branch of research, and the long-term effects on society and the economy can be actively shaped in economic, social, political and also cultural terms.
Fraunhofer and responsibility
Technological change processes such as digitalization are merging the most diverse worlds of life, experience and work. They open up new design opportunities, but also go hand in hand with fundamental change processes. "We are fully committed to our responsibility to provide the best possible support to political decision-makers with our expertise," explains Fraunhofer President Prof. Reimund Neugebauer.
"Germany must be a leader in system-relevant innovations as well as in innovations with disruptive potential. For this reason, we have decided to establish our own Fraunhofer Group on the topic of innovations with a focus on socio-economic and socio-technical research."
Innovation research from July
The new Fraunhofer Group for Innovation Research will begin its work on July 1, 2017 and will initially consist of four research institutes with over 500 employees: The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO in Stuttgart, the Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW in Leipzig, the Fraunhofer Institute for Scientific and Technical Trend Analysis INT in Euskirchen and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI in Karlsruhe.
Future issues with systemic relevance
The initial focus of the new alliance will be on strengthening the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in the research, technology and innovation policy dialog with politics, industry and society. It also sees itself as a platform for technology-related issues of the future with systemic relevance. In this function, the new Group is to flank a decisive measure of the newly launched Research Factory Microelectronics Germany (FMD):
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the provision of state-of-the-art equipment and facilities at eleven Fraunhofer and two Leibniz Institutes with around 350 million euros in order to bring together technological capabilities for future-relevant subject areas in a joint technology pool.
The Fraunhofer Group for Innovation Research is now the eighth group - others deal with the topics of IUK technology, life sciences, light & surfaces, microelectronics, production, defense and security research as well as materials, component materials.
