19th Symposium for Foresight and Technology Planning

A forum for strategists.

23. & 24. OCT

BERLIN

Shaping the future of innovation

The symposium focusses on product and technology planning, which is a key strategic competence nowadays. It is about recognising the potential for future success at an early stage and exploiting it in good time. Direct customer feedback is often not enough, as customers can rarely predict tomorrow's problems. Companies must therefore anticipate developments in markets, technologies and other relevant areas in order to develop successful strategies.

Systematic foresight makes it possible to identify opportunities at the interface of future market requirements and technological possibilities, but also to recognise potential threats to existing business models. This forms the basis for research and development projects and investment decisions.

Our aim is to create a forum for experts involved in strategic product and technology planning. Through regular events, we want to promote dialogue in this area by allowing experts to present and discuss their work and exchange experiences. The participants should address both developers and users of methods. The event is aimed at decision-makers in companies who are involved in shaping the future of their business, as well as experts from relevant research institutes.

The intensive exchange of experience at a high level, which is guaranteed by a peer review process and the publication of the contributions in a digital conference volume, is a particular highlight. The event offers a wide range of opportunities for in-depth discussions and the exchange of ideas.

Kooperationspartner

Cooperation Partners

The Heinz Nixdorf Institut is an interdisciplinary research institution focusing on intelligent technical systems. It brings together departments of computer science and engineering to generate impulses for future-oriented technical systems and corresponding services geared to global markets. The Advanced Systems Engineering department is dedicated to business and systems engineering. It supports companies in the strategic orientation of their business towards a digital and sustainable future and designs the necessary intelligent technical systems. It uses systems engineering as a development approach and explores the use of artificial intelligence in product development.

The Fraunhofer-Verbund Innovationsforschung contributes its comprehensive knowledge of the complex interrelationships in innovation systems. Recognising and understanding changes in industries, markets and technologies at an early stage is crucial in order to be able to actively shape long-term economic, technological, social, political and cultural effects. As a competent partner, the Fraunhofer Group for Innovation Research offers a unique combination of socio-economic and socio-technical research in order to provide orientation, determine positions and support the shaping of the future in the innovation system.

acatech – Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften is the national academy funded by the German federal and state governments and the voice of science and engineering in Germany and abroad. It advises politics and society on issues relating to the future of technological science and technology policy.

acatech brings science, industry and society together. The Academy's members are outstanding scientists from the fields of engineering, natural sciences, medicine, humanities and social sciences. The senators are personalities from technology-oriented companies and associations as well as the major scientific organisations.

Hosts

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Roman Dumitrescu

Heinz Nixdorf Institute | University of Paderborn

Roman Dumitrescu is Director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechatronic Design Technology IEM and Head of the Advanced Systems Engineering department at the Heinz Nixdorf Institute at Paderborn University. His research focuses on the product development of intelligent technical systems. In particular, Prof Dumitrescu researches new solutions along the entire product life cycle in model- and data-based engineering.

Prof Dumitrescu is also Managing Director of the technology network Intelligent Technical Systems OstWestfalenLippe (it's OWL). Among other things, he is a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), the Technology Advisory Board of the Felix Schoeller Group, a member of the expert group of the German government's Innovation Dialogue, the Research Advisory Board of the 3-D MID e.V. research association, the Board of Directors of the RKW Competence Centre and the initiator of the two tech start-ups Two Pillars GmbH and AI Marketplace GmbH.

Prof. Dr. Katharina Hölzle

Fraunhofer Group for Innovation Research

Prof. Dr. Katharina Hölzle has been Professor and Director of the Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management IAT at the University of Stuttgart and Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO since April 2022. Since April 2023, she has been Technology Commissioner to the Minister of Economic Affairs of Baden-Württemberg. From 2018 to 2022, Prof. Hölzle was Deputy Chair of the Expert Commission for Research and Innovation (EFI) and a member of the High-Tech Forum of the German Federal Government. She is a member of acatech, the German Academy of Science and Engineering, where she is a member of the Industry 4.0 Research Advisory Board and head of the HR Science Circle. She is co-chair of the Employment Working Group of the Automotive Industry Transformation Expert Group and a founding member of #shetransformsIT. Her research areas are technology and innovation management, work science and digital transformation.

A focus is always the interaction between people, technology and organisation.