Transformation processes: How do we find common goals and successfully design adaptation?

• What role do urban areas play in achieving transformation goals?
• What does socio-technical transformation mean in relation to urban areas?
  
• How do urban innovation ecosystems influence the options for shaping urban transformation processes?
• Which actors/stakeholders should be involved in developing and implementing future visions?
  
• How can we successfully organize participation in transformation processes?
• How can transnational network relationships support urban transformation processes?
• What are the political options for shaping urban transformation processes?

Making green transitions more democratic and democraties greener: Paving the way for innovative public administrations in European Cities (GreenDEMO)

GreenDEMO sets out to study the new and innovative role of public administrations in coping with societal challenges, particularly in supporting democratic processes of societal change to reach green sustainability goals. The project aims to contribute to “greener“ democracies in Europe and to more democratic sustainability transition processes. GreenDEMO more particularly proposes to design, prototype, test and replicate organisational innovation in city administration in order to enable, stabilise and enhance capacities of public administration to act for climate neutrality and democratic stability.

Knowledge Institutions Catalysing Local Actions for Net Zero (CATALYSE)

CATALYSE envisions fostering climate neutral cities by moving beyond fragmented experimentation and towards mission-orientated policies that are well embedded within local contexts. By strengthening the transformative role of Knowledge Institutions (KI) as hubs and trustful actors within mission-oriented innovation ecosystems, the project aims to connect diverse stakeholders, scale social innovation, and enhance collaboration across Europe. Ultimately, CATALYSE seeks to create inclusive problem-solution spaces that bridge local needs and global challenges, paving the way for sustainable, socially innovative, and democratically legitimized transitions towards net-zero cities.

High-Tech Strategy 2025 – Scientific support of missions and performance measurement in the context of accompanying the HighTech Forum

The project aims to support the implementation of the High-Tech Strategy (HTS) 2025, which directs German research and innovation policy more strongly towards addressing the Grand Challenges, the major societal challenges of our time. On the one hand, the project supports the implementation of the new mission-oriented policy of the High-Tech Strategy 2025, which is very complex due to its compre-hensiveness, through evidence-based scientific policy consultation and supports learning processes in the governance of these missions. On the other hand, it will develop an innovative concept to measure the effectiveness of this mission-oriented policy. The project is integrated in the activities supporting the High-Tech Forum (the high-level advisory body accompanying the HTS 2025).

Transition design for sustainable innovations – Initiatives in the municipal fields of action energy, water, construction & housing (TransNIK)

Innovative approaches towards sustainability can be observed in various areas, including traditional municipal fields of action, such as: energy supply, water supply & sewage disposal, as well as construction and housing. TransNIK aims to investigate drivers and obstacles for the development and dissemination of innovative sustainable approaches in these three fields of action and to identify key points for a transition to new solutions.

Communication and Participation for Societal Transformation towards the Bioeconomy (BioKompass)

The BioKompass research project supports the transformation of society towards a bioeconomy, i.e. an economic model based on ecosystem services. It does so through the participatory development of a deeper, comprehensive understanding of a future bio-based economy in the form of future visions of a bioeconomy. It also promotes the participatory development of educational content, the development and testing of innovative participation and communication formats for different target groups in a museum, and conducts an accompanying evaluation to support the transferability of the formats to other transformation processes.  

Integration of economic and solution-driven innovation policy rationalities

With a view to the presentation of the Reinhard Mohn Prize 2020, Fraunhofer ISI supports the Bertelsmann Stiftung in the professional and scientific preparation of the award ceremony. The Reinhard Mohn Prize 2020 is entitled “Forstering Innovation. Unlocking Potential”.  

• Hölzle, K.; Lerch, C.; Kirstgen, A.; Hochfeld, K.; Paul, S.; Woyke, I. (2024): Impulspapier Zukunft der Wertschöpfung Baden-Württemberg. Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Tourismus Baden-Württemberg. 
• Strumińska-Kutra, M.; Dembek, A.; Hielscher, S.; Stadler, M. (2023): Innovating Urban Governance for Sustainable Energy Transitions: Between Institutional Design and Institutional Adaptation. In: Environmental innovation and societal transitions 48.
  
• Seus, S.; Stadler, M. (2022): Evaluating a City Lab Process in Mannheim's distric Neckarstadt-West: Three main challenges for the evaluation. In: fteval Journal for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation 53, pp. 133-140.
• Wittmann, F.; Hufnagl, M.; Lindner, R.; Roth, F.; Edler, J. (2020): Developing a Typology for Mission-Oriented Innovation Policies. Fraunhofer ISI Discussion Papers Innovation Systems and Policy Analysis, No. 64, Karlsruhe: Fraunhofer ISI.
• Lindner, R.; Decker, M.; Ehrensperger, E.; Heyen, N.; Lingner, S.; Scherz, C.; Sotoudeh, M. (Hrsg.) (2020): Gesellschaftliche Transformationen. Gegenstand oder Auftrag der Technikfolgenabschätzung? Baden-Baden.
• Wesche, J. P.; Negro, S. O.; Dütschke, E.; Raven, R. P. J. M.; Hekkert, M. P. (2019): Configurational innovation systems - Explaining the slow German heat transition. In: Energy research & social science 52 (2019), pp. 99-113.
  
• Köhler, J. H.; Hohmann, C.; Dütschke, E. (2018): Sustainability transitions in local communities: District heating, water systems and communalhousing projects. Working Paper Sustainability and Innovation, No. S11/2018, Karlsruhe: Fraunhofer ISI.
  
• Kimpeler, S.; Schirrmeister, E; Hüsing, B.; Voglhuber-Slavinsky, A. (2018): Zukunftsbilder aus dem Leben in einer Bioökonomie. Karlsruhe: Fraunhofer.de
  
• Dütschke, E., Wesche, J. P., Köhler, J., Hohmann, C., Niederste-Hollenberg, J., Schirrmeister, E., Erdmann, L., Renz, I., Hacke, U., Müller, K., Laws, N., Heinrich, H. (2018). Schlussbericht: Transitionsgestaltung für nachhaltige Innovationen – Initiativen in den kommunal geprägten Handlungsfeldern Energie, Wasser, Bauen & Wohnen (TransNIK). Karlsruhe: Fraunhofer ISI.
• Bodenheimer, M. (2018): Beyond technology: Towards sustainability through behavioral transitions. Working Paper Sustainability and Innovation, No. S05/2018. Karlsruhe: Fraunhofer ISI.
   

• Visioning
• Environment analysis / horizon scanning and analyzing trends
• Scenario development
• Roadmapping
• Face-to-face and/or online participation processes
• Needs analyses
• Participatory modeling
• Vision assessment
• Cognitive mapping (e.g. to analyze similar and dissimilar understandings of the quality of life)
• Ethnographic methods
• Situation analysis (following Clarke 2005)
• Transformation-related policy analyses, design of policies, governance arrangements and regulation
• Monitoring, accompanying research, formative evaluation, effectiveness measurement
• Social-scientific research on systemic resilience