Overview of our annual report
Every year, Fraunhofer ISI makes a major contribution to shaping our future through its research and consulting activities. We managed this again in 2021, despite the ongoing pandemic. In more than 400 projects, we addressed important issues for society and generated a turnover of around 32 million euros.
One highlight of the year was hosting the International Sustainability Transitions Conference, which enabled us to demonstrate and further expand our role as an international leader within the Sustainable Transition Community. Under the motto “From research toward impact”, more than 500 participants from around the world gathered to follow nearly 150 sessions and over 300 keynotes.
We also contributed our expertise to more than 200 publications. For example, we collaborated on the annual report of the Commission of Experts on research, innovation and technological performance in Germany 2021, and accompanied the funding program “Battery 2020, technology sovereignty based on the example of the emerging battery industry in Europe”.
In terms of content, our main focus in 2021 was on changes in the climate, digitalization and systemic risks (resilience), as well as the important question concerning the state’s role in all these transformation processes and the systemic innovations they require. We addressed some of the particularly relevant topics as policy briefs in our “Perspectives” series: Digitalization, Mission-oriented innovation policy, and Systemic resilience. Working on all these different topics requires a high degree of networking that combines core competencies and makes a systemic work approach possible in the first place.
At Fraunhofer ISI, we use the synergy of our colleagues’ technical, economic and social science knowledge and work together on the important transformations of society. A high degree of diversity is a key component of our success. Our teams feature a mix of nationalities, ages and gender and are made up of natural and social scientists, economists, and engineers. In 2021, we pushed the topic of diversity in many areas, for example through an in-depth analysis of the institute’s current gender diversity and a concept based on this. This included further training and workshops for our employees and awareness-raising among those in management positions, as well as a series of presentations. We were given second place in the Fraunhofer “BestChance” award 2021 for our commitment.
Our successful activities were also noticed by others. Helped by our media activities, we were able to continue to enhance our visibility over the year and reach decision-makers in policymaking and business, experts as well as a broad, international public.
We have compiled some of the highlights from 2021 on this page to provide an overview of successful projects, major topics, facts and figures, as well as staff and organizational changes. We hope you enjoy reading about them!
The Institute’s Directors
In my opinion, a successful team is one whose members have completely different expectations and opinions at the beginning of a task. This is because critical and constructive engagement, as well as solution-oriented discourse with the broadest possible diversity of perspectives are the greatest assets of a team.
Fraunhofer ISI relies heavily on diversity. This is not only imperative but logical because to follow a systemic approach and not to rely on diversity would be plain stupid. Diversity in practice is based on mutual respect, moderation and being open to other ways of thinking-this is in fact how I experience it at Fraunhofer ISI. Diversity is meanwhile an established culture at the Institute.
I think that Fraunhofer ISI is on the right path. In my experience, diversity in organizations and networks can only be increased in small steps, taken at a slow pace. The level reached must always be proved sustainable enough before it can be further increased. For as undeniable as the advantage of diversity may be it automatically leads to further complexity. It is important not to get carried away, but to understand diversity as a continuous process, as an ongoing task.
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Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI
