Prof. Dr. phil. Kerstin Cuhls

Kerstin Cuhls has been a scientific project manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI since 1992. She studied Japanology, Chinese Studies and Economics/Business Administration. She finished her Dr. phil. at the University of Hamburg in Japanology about Technology Foresight in Japan and now combines this knowledge with methods from Futures Research. In October 2020, she was appointed honorary professor by the rector of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg.

From 2007 to 2009 Kerstin Cuhls was the project manager of the first cycle of the BMBF Foresight. From 2008 to 2010 she was head of the business unit “Foresight and Futures Research“. In national, regional and international studies for different contracting authorities she built up a huge repertoire of methods in Foresight applied in projects and taught in seminars at the Freie Universität Berlin (Masterstudiengang Zukunftsforschung).

From 2011 to 2012, she was interim professor for Japanology at the Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Heidelberg with lectures and seminars about East Asian history, cultural issues in the context of management, Innovation in Japan, Time Concepts in East Asia and Demographic Change. Teaching assignments (Demographic Change, Time Concepts) in Heidelberg followed.

Kerstin Cuhls was member of the European Forum for Forward-Looking Activities (EFFLA) of the European Commission, the High Level Expert Group RISE and the expert group “Strategic Foresight”. She is in the International Editorial and Advisory Boards of different Journals (e.g. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Journal of European Futures Research, Futures & Foresight Science, Zeitschrift für Zukunftsforschung etc.).