We launched our new representative office in Berlin

Yesterday we launched our new representative office in Berlin. To celebrate, we kicked of a Berlin Innovation Policy Dialogue, a Forum to reflect on current challenge of innovation policy. Why do we think this Forum is needed? Innovation policy is facing a fundamental change. Disruptive technologies are developing ever more rapidly, and multiple social or geopolitical challenges are confronting the innovation systems in Germany and Europe. In this context it is essential to create the conditions for economic growth and the necessary transformation of industrial structures even more effectively, to establish sovereignty in the development and production of critical technologies, to advance ecological transformation and to shape digitalisation in line with European values.

But how can innovation policy meet these challenges in the future? What course should be set after the 2025 federal German election? And how can research support strategic intelligence for innovation policy?

 I kicked of the discussion with a short reflection on the relationship between innovation and systems research and policy stakeholders based on our new book on ‘Systems and Innovation Research in Transition. Research Questions and Trends in Historical Perspective’. The book shows how interdisciplinary, policy-oriented systems and innovation research has addressed new trends and challenges in cooperation with policy over the last fifty years, and how research questions and policy contexts have co-evolved over time.

We then invited invited Dr Gisela Philipsenburg (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), Dr. Mirjam Storim (Siemens AG, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees Fraunhofer ISI), Dr Susanne Lottermoser (Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety), to express their views, concerns and suggestions. In the subsequent moderated workshop the representatives from policy, business and NGOs engaged in a brainstorm on the priorities of innovation and transformational policy.  The workshop was wrapped up by Dr. Steffi Ober (NABU - The Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union) and my colleague Rainer Walz .

 Our discussion made clear that innovation policy has gained new relevance for many different policy fields and actors. For this reason, conceptual clarity, interdisciplinary approaches and strategic foresight are more necessary than ever, in particular to understand how our understanding of innovation policy can better reflect the multi-dimensional challenges posed by technological disruptions, geo-political tensions and societal fragmentation. In order to do so, exchanges like yesterday’s meeting are becoming more important to co-generate a future-proof innovation policy agenda. I would like to thank all speakers and participants for their exciting insights, as well as my ISI colleagues, in particular Max Priebe , Carsten Schwäbe , Ralf Lindner und Simone Kimpeler , who co-organised and moderated the event.

With our new representative office in Berlin, we at Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI want to contribute to a constructive exchange between science, policy and society in the future and also offer the opportunity for networking with science and innovation policy practitioners.

 #innovation #innovationpolicy #innovationsystems #FraunhoferISIBerlin #BerlinOffice