On 17 and 18 December 2024, the Institute will host the seventh “Research in Innovation, Science and Entrepreneurship Workshop” from young researchers for young researchers. Participants can expect exciting topics and a stimulating exchange of ideas. Alexander Oettl, Professor at the Scheller College of Business, Georgia Tech, will give the keynote speech on “Building Tomorrow's Science: The Interplay of Talent, Geography, an AI”.
The workshop was first organized by Junior Researchers in 2018, and is aimed at Ph.D. students and Junior Postdocs worldwide. RISE offers them an opportunity to present their work, receive feedback from experienced researchers and connect with peers from other research institutions.
See the Program RISE7 (PDF).
More information on the workshop website RISE7 Workshop.
Due to space constraints, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition has to move to a new building. The transfer to the new location is planned for the first quarter of 2025.
The Institute is currently housed in three locally dispersed buildings, with a significant space deficit. A new building had to be found in order to eliminate this space problem and to bring the scientific and service departments together under one roof. After a comprehensive search, a suitable solution was found in a property at Herzog-Max-Straße/corner of Neuhauser Straße.
The central location will continue to ensure good and fast accessibility to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and the Technical University of Munich, which is of crucial importance for scientific cooperation, teaching as well as joint doctoral training and supervision.
The Forum Latin America, a Max Planck Law Initiative, invites the submission of abstracts to participate in its conference “The Law and the Amazon: Challenges for a Sustainable Future” to be held in Freiburg on 17 and 18 October 2024.
The conference will be held at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law. Travel funding is available for international participants requiring assistance with travel expenses to attend the conference.
The Amazon rainforest symbolizes the heart of Latin America, but it's also a place that reflects problems affecting the continent and globally. Placing it at the center of the debate allows opening up issues of general interest, such as climate change, sustainable development, conflicts over land rights, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, environmental degradation, access to connectivity and digitization, urban and rural life developments and inequalities, and how to set limits to extractive industrialization.
Please find the details to submit your abstract by 17 June on the Max Planck Law website.
Young researchers working in the fields of Economics or Management who would like to present an empirical research paper at the 7th Research on Innovation, Science and Entrepreneurship Workshop are invited to submit it until 26 July 2024.
For the seventh time now, the two-day event is organized by Ph.D. students and Post-docs of the Department for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research headed by Dietmar Harhoff to give young scholars the opportunity to present their work.
The RISE7 Workshop on 17/18 December 2024 aims at stimulating a rigorous in-depth discussion of a selected number of research papers by Ph.D. students and Junior Post-docs, providing feedback and connecting with peers from other research institutions.
Keynote speaker of the RISE7 Workshop is Matt Marx (Cornell University).
Get the Call for Papers.
See RISE6 Workshop Website.
On 18 and 19 December 2023, the sixth “Research in Innovation, Science and Entrepreneurship Workshop” (RISE6) from young researchers for young researchers will take place. The program of the RISE6 Workshop 2023 is now available. The participants can look forward to exciting topics, an interesting keynote, and inspiring scientific exchange.
The workshop was first organized by Junior Researchers in 2018, and is aimed at Ph.D. students and Junior Postdocs worldwide. RISE offers them an opportunity to present their work, receive feedback from experienced researchers and connect with peers from other research institutions. Keynote Speaker of the RISE6 Workshop is Ina Ganguli, Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
See the Program RISE6 (PDF).
More on the workshop website RISE6 Workshop.
The German Agency for Transfer and Innovation (DATI) is to break new ground in the fostering of transfer and innovation. The aim is to bring research results into application and to people more quickly and effectively, and to unleash new innovation potential throughout Germany. Dietmar Harhoff was appointed a member of the DATI founding commission by Federal Minister Stark-Watzinger at the beginning of October 2023. The commission has now taken up its work.
Technological and social innovations increasingly determine the competitiveness of the economy and the future viability of a society. Numerous universities and other research institutions in Germany generate new knowledge and explore new technologies each and every day.
The DATI is set up to bring research results into economic and/or social applications through an effective transfer of ideas, knowledge, and technology. It will operate across all topics and focus on both technological and social innovations. The agency will pursue an innovative and flexible funding approach that is based on the specific needs and competences in the country, and offers transfer from a single source.
The DATI Founding Commission, which convened for its constituent meeting in Berlin on 9 October 2023, has the task of developing proposals for the location and leadership of DATI. It is also tasked with making recommendations on the content and procedural aspects of establishing and expanding DATI. The committee consists of 16 experts from science, industry, associations, start-ups, the federal states, the international sector, and the Parliament.
Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger explained: “In Germany, too many good ideas have so far ended up in a drawer. We want to bring more of them into application, and thus into companies and to people. A key instrument for this is the German Agency for Transfer and Innovation, where we are now taking the next important step with the Founding Commission. The Commission will help us to get the new innovation agency up and running quickly.”
After Dietmar Harhoff had already supported the founding of the German Ferderal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND), whose central task is to find and promote highly innovative ideas with the potential for disruptive innovation, in 2019 as Chairman of the Founding Commission, his expertise is now in demand for the founding of DATI in the area of innovation-oriented transfer.
Dr. Stefan Groß-Selbeck (BCG X, Boston Consulting Group) has assumed the chairmanship of the founding commission. He emphasized: “DATI is an important new element in the German transfer and innovation landscape. As the founding commission, we will closely accompany this process and contribute in particular to important issues such as site selection and the selection of management personnel.”
Further members of the DATI founding commission are:
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Uschi Backes-Gellner (University of Zurich), Prof. Dr. Jörg Bagdahn (Anhalt University of Applied Sciences), Dr. Anna Christmann, MdB, Dr. Achim Dercks (German Chamber of Industry and Commerce), Andrea Frank (Stifterverband), Prof. Dr. Holger Hanselka (Fraunhofer Society). Thomas Jarzombek, MdB, Prof. Dr. Kira Kastell (University of Applied Sciences Hamm), Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart (TU Dresden), Prof. Dr. Birgitt Riegraf (University of Paderborn), Ye-One Rhie, MdB, Prof. Dr. Stephan Seiter, MdB, Prof. Dr. Anja Steinbeck (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) und Philipp von der Wippel (Project Together).
The conference program and registration for the Comparative Data Law conference to take place in Munich on 7 and 8 December 2023 are now available. The event is the final part of a three-part conference series on Global Data Law and part of a larger research agenda related to Global Data Law and Policy and is jointly organized with the University of Passau Research Centre for Law.
In the spirit of the NBER Pin Factory Visits – company visits conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research since the mid-1990s to promote field research in economics and make site visits an important part of empirical research – the team of the Institute’s Economics Department visited several sites of the TQ Group on 23 June 2023. TQ is highly innovative in the field of electronic products and services.
The idea of pin factory visits goes back to Adam Smith, who at the end of the 18th century used the production of pins to illustrate the increase in productivity through the division of labor.
As one of the largest technology service providers and electronics specialists in Germany, the technology company TQ Group offers tailored and innovative solutions to a wide range of industries, from development, production and other services to product lifecycle management. It is active in the fields of E²MS (Electronic Engineering Manufacturing Services), embedded systems, drives, robotics, automation, medical applications as well as aviation and avionics.
In addition, TQ provides a complete range of its own products, such as embedded modules, base boards, human-machine interface systems, and drive and automation solutions. TQ also combines both as an ODM (Original Design Manufacturer). On the basis of its modular service and solution portfolio, the company develops and produces customer-specific products internationally, relying on “Made in Germany”. It is thus exemplary in the area of innovation in many respects and can provide science with interesting insights into the reality of innovative companies in Germany.
The team of the economics department visited three sites in six hours. The first route led to the company headquarters in Gut Delling near Seefeld in Upper Bavaria, where the doctoral students and postdocs, together with Dietmar Harhoff, had the opportunity to exchange ideas with the CEO and TQ founder Rüdiger Stahl and learn about interesting topics related to innovation, technology and development. Stahl spoke about the company's history, evolution – from a 2-man firm in 1994 to an international technology company – and innovation strategy. The framework conditions, challenges and regulatory restrictions for innovative companies in Germany came up again and again:
The global economic situation presents German companies with a variety of challenges. Fragile supply chains, geopolitical crises and protectionist laws such as the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act are impacting the ability of German companies to plan and compete. There is a particular need for action in the area of innovation. This also includes traditional sectors such as mechanical engineering and hardware manufacturing, in which continuous innovations must be pursued. Targeted measures are needed to sustainably strengthen innovation in Germany and make German companies competitive on an international level.
At the second site in Inning am Ammersee, Head of Production Julian Hornung gave the group insights into the fabrication of drive systems, from high-performance drives for e-bikes to RoboDrives. Finally, at the third location in Durach, the team took an in-depth look at automation and spoke with Sören Bruckmann, Head of TQ Robotics, Head of Sales Robert Vogel, and Georg Weiß, who heads R&D in Durach. The most debated question was why small and medium-sized companies in Germany lagged so far behind in automation.
In the showroom, a postdoc with research focus on automation and human-machine interactions had the opportunity to test the operation of a so-called cobot, i.e., a collaborative robot that works together with humans and is not separated from them in the production process by protective devices. The final leg of the journey took the team to the Durach production halls, where robots also produce robots.
The Institute’s researchers took away a lot of inspiration and some real-world and practical insights. More pin factory visits are to take place.
To the TQ company website.
Young researchers working in the fields of Economics or Management who would like to present an empirical research paper at the “6th Research on Innovation, Science and Entrepreneurship Workshop” are invited to submit it until 28 July 2023.
For the sixth time now, the two-day event is organized by Ph.D. students and Postdocs of the Department for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research headed by Dietmar Harhoff to give young scholars the opportunity to present their work.
The RISE6 Workshop on 18/19 December 2023 aims at stimulating a rigorous in-depth discussion of a selected number of research papers by Ph.D. students and Junior Postdocs, providing feedback and connecting with peers from other research institutions.
Keynote speaker of the RISE6 Workshop is Ina Ganguli (UMass Amherst).
Get the Call for Papers.
See RISE6 Workshop Website.
The program of the Munich Summer Institute is now available. Keynote Speakers are Nigel P. Melville from the University of Michigan, Jana Gallus from UCLA Anderson and David L. Schwartz from Northwestern University.
The goal of the Munich Summer Institute is to stimulate a rigorous in-depth discussion of a select number of research papers and to strengthen the interdisciplinary international research community in these areas. Researchers in economics, law, management and related fields at all stages of their career attend the Munich Summer Institute as presenters in a plenary or a poster session, as discussants or as attendants. The MSI features three keynote lectures, 12 plenary presentations, and a daily poster session including a poster slam.
The Munich Summer Institute focuses on quantitative empirical research. It is jointly organized by ETH Zurich, HEC Lausanne,LMU Munich, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Northeastern University, and TUM.
More information on the MSI website.
