Science Talk

Interview with Dr. Robin Bürger on the topic of “crowdFANding - Südkurve bleibt!“

With 2099 supporters from 35 countries, a total of €155,000 pledged and the Innovationspreis Thüringen people's choice award, the pilot campaign of crowdFANding was a roaring success. On Sunday, 10 September, the follow up project crowdFANding II concluded. The focus once again was co-determination in the sports arena through crowdfunding, this time with Fanprojekt Mainz e.V. which was aimed at the building of a fan clubhouse for the active fans of this Bundesliga club. The campaign also hoped to achieve a world record and a respective entry into the Guinness Book of Records as the sports-related crowdfunding project with the most supporters. In an interview, Erik Ackermann and Dr. Robin Bürger from the Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW's Innovation Financing Unit talk about providing scientific support to the campaign and the overall positive results.

In the SPARCS project, seven cities, including the city of Leipzig, are demonstrating in around 100 individual projects how individual buildings, blocks or districts can contribute to a sustainable and climate-neutral urban future with an intelligent energy system. They are using the methodological framework City Vision 2050, developed at Fraunhofer IMW in the Professionalization of Knowledge Transfer Processes unit, which supports the cities in aligning their urban transformation and energy system transformation with the goal of climate neutrality in the long term. In an interview, Nadja Riedel, head of the Leipzig SPARCS consortium in the Digital City Department of the City of Leipzig, and Annamaria Riemer, head of the Professionalization of Knowledge Transfer Processes unit, explain what City Vision Leipzig 2050 is and how it helps to achieve the goal of a climate-neutral city.

Through the “DiBBloK” joint project, an interdisciplinary research team is currently identifying drivers and obstacles to digitization processes in management and organizational structures involved in vocational training. Their aim is to develop starting points and potential for digital innovation across organizations. In the interview, Anzhela Preissler, head of the Professional Development and Competence Management Unit, and research fellow, Desirée Jörke, talk about current developments, initial findings and effects of Corona on the project.