Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW
The team of the Innovative Regions Unit within the Regional Transformation and Innovation Policy Division at Fraunhofer IMW supports decision-makers from businesses, politics, and academia in gaining strategic access to knowledge within innovation ecosystems. The unit's services include analyzing emerging technologies or transforming industries and regions, thereby providing clarity in an increasingly complex knowledge economy. Their network and knowledge-based understanding of innovation ecosystems, operationalized in the so-called AIR model (Actors, Interactions, Framework Conditions), serves for the identification and analysis of development paths, knowledge bases, diversification potentials, and collaborations. Regions, companies, and academic institutions are thus supported in their transformation journeys.
In currently ongoing projects, the Innovative Regions Unit assists in various endeavors, such as shaping structural changes in Saxon lignite mining regions (GENESIS - Shaping New Development Paths in the Structural Transformation in Saxony), analyzing and supporting the establishment of a German quantum computing ecosystem ("Quantum Ecosystem Deutschland (Q.E.D.)"), developing tools for data-driven identification and evaluation of markets for non-academic research institutions ("Markets for International Technology Transfer - MarketsFITT"), crafting an economic strategy for the city of Zeitz, and identifying potential cooperation partners in the European innovation ecosystem for the Japanese chemical conglomerate Asahi Kasei.
Within the Innovative Regions Unit, research is conducted by Dr. Benjamin Klement, Dr. Juliane Groth, Manuel Molina Vogelsang, Dr. Max Mittenzwei and Lukas Willing.