Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISIDeputy Head of the Competence Center Foresight
Since 1999, Elna Schirrmeister's research has been focusing on foresight and monitoring of innovations in the manufacturing industry and other sectors applying and developing different methods such as Bibliometrics, Scenario, Visioning, Delphi and Roadmap approaches. She has conducted numerous foresight projects dealing with innovative technologies, service concepts and societal changes for companies, German ministries, associations and the European Commission. She has been leading high-level scenario, visioning, scanning and blind-spot-analysis processes exploring changing research patterns, emerging technologies and future perspectives for underpinning strategy building of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Supporting and enabling future thinking and dialogues as a measure to reflect on cognitive biases and to handle complex futures lie at the core of her research activities. Her educational background is in mechanical engineering and business administration.