The host role of the yearly New Year’s reception of Leipzig’s Fraunhofer Institutes traditionally alternates between Fraunhofer IZI and Fraunhofer IMW. In 2020, the baton is carried by Fraunhofer IMW and the event is opened by Institute Director Professor Posselt. In his welcoming address, he highlighted the socio-economic research focus of the Fraunhofer IMW and its priorities for the Science Year 2020. According to Thorsten Posselt, the experts at the Fraunhofer IMW are researching how to shape the knowledge society and new developments in globalization. In doing so, they are hunting down the decisive causes and drivers of change in our social coexistence.

Professor Posselt welcomed numerous guests, including members of the German Bundestag, the state parliaments and the city of Leipzig, state ministers and secretaries of state, magnificence, customers, colleagues from science, friends of the Fraunhofer Institutes in Leipzig and curators of the joint New Year's reception of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI and the Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW. The economist and business economist, who has been Head of the Fraunhofer IMW since 2008, saw this as a good opportunity to start conversations and enter into dialogue at the beginning of the New Year.

Thorsten Posselt described the consideration of challenges from different perspectives as a good reflection of the daily work as a socio-economic research institute of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and also as his personal and the institute’s main focus. "We are skilled in changing perspectives and can contribute to questioning paradigms and finding solutions beyond existing paths. Multiperspectivity is part of our DNA."

Structural change - the transformation of the industrial society

Using applied, socio-economic research, the experts at the Fraunhofer IMW in Leipzig develop solutions for the long-term success of customers and partners from the fields of business, industry, research and society. In order to complement the portfolio and bundle the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's expertise in the fields of techno- and socio-economic research, the Center for Materials Economics CEM in Halle, previously located at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructures of Materials and Systems IMWS, was transferred to the, research focus wise, more appropriate Fraunhofer IMW. In doing so, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is acknowledging the special significance of structural change in Central Germany and the transformation of the industrial society. With their understanding of material flows and the interdependencies of energy-intensive business clusters, the Fraunhofer experts from Halle will henceforth complement the profile of the Fraunhofer IMW. Looking forward the structural change and the transformation processes taking place in Central Germany and Lusatia can therefore be supported even better.

Praise for employees of the Fraunhofer IMW

Approximately 190 employees from 14 countries move a budget of 10 million euros to support customers and partners in driving innovation forward. The benefits of socio-economic and applied research for people, the dynamics of a knowledge-based society and the future of industrial production are the focus of the Institute's international projects, network activities and analyses. The interdisciplinary research team provides scientifically sound support to companies, organizations, institutions, countries, municipalities and regions in strategic decision-making processes.

Innovation researchers carry out important work

The innovation researchers investigate innovation transfer, innovation systems and the management of transnational research and development (R&D) projects. In Professor Posselt's view, the Fraunhofer IMW has succeeded in broadening its profile and the basis of projects over the years: "We have grown, we have been able to combine a strong link to practice with our strong scientific orientation and offer our customers an ever broader base of expertise. As economists and humanities scholars, we have complemented and deepened the profile of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, which has a strong focus on technology and engineering".

Professor Thorsten Posselt, Fraunhofer IMW’s Institute Director, expressly thanked all employees who carried out tremendously important and significant work throughout the year. After the Research Day as the Institute's kick-off into the new year and the mutual exchange of information about the main research areas of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's non-university research institution it provided, he is confident that the Fraunhofer IMW will impress with innovative ideas and concepts from Fraunhofer in the Science Year 2020. He and many customers and partners have received many new impulses for 2020 - the golden 20s of innovation. The participants of the Research Day were introduced to a great variety of ideas from applied socio-economic research.

Together with the partner of the Fraunhofer IMW at this year's Research Day - the platform for innovation - a cross-panel was used during the in-house event to jointly explore the question of how cross innovation is to be understood and what science can contribute to further define this approach and to provide a scientific basis for it.

Professor Posselt addressed the founding director of the Leipzig-based agency for leap innovations "SprinD", Rafael Laguna de la Vera, with the wish to work together to ensure that the motto of the Fraunhofer IMW, the economists at Fraunhofer: research and develop - socio-economically and scientifically sound, together with the newly founded "SprinD" would lead to good solutions for society. "From here to the next leap innovation, it seems to me to be no more than a small decade - the golden 20s that lie ahead. You can count on our proactive neighborhood in this respect," emphasized Professor Posselt. He expressed his great thanks to the clients and customers and emphasized his pleasure about the continuation of the cooperation. He concluded by thanking the representatives of politics at federal and state level. "Without your decisions and support for Fraunhofer's applied research, we could not continue our work in favor of the transformation of industrial society."