Research group

Innovation and Regional Research

Welcome

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The “Innovation and Regional Research” research group looks at innovation and regional research from an economic perspective and against the background of new technologies being developed. The research group focuses on evaluating the economic potential of new technologies and the ways to exploit it, anticipates future applications and assesses the consequences of new technologies and their applications.

Research areas

Strategic Foresight

Design and implementation of foresight plans related to the creation and diffusion of new technologies as well as regional approaches to problem solving
Development and evaluation of lab-based foresight methods
Assess the risks and opportunities of new technologies as well as the conditions in application contexts

Innovation and regional development

Investigate the ability for innovation within businesses and regions
Elaboration of scientific foundations and carrying out empirical studies on innovation locations as “hot spots” of regional development
Researching the role played by different types of innovation lab (including Creative Labs, FabLabs, Living Labs) in regional development

Innovation processes

Investigate the role of creativity in innovation processes and methods for supporting them at the operational, industry-wide, local and regional levels
Research and application of Rapid Prototyping methods in innovation processes using technical infrastructure of our own FabLabs (ViNN:Lab)

Methods and Approaches

A range of methods and approaches are needed in order to systematically assess technologies, recognise technological change at an early stage and determine the ramifications of these on the strategic management of businesses. These include strategic foresight methods such as:

technology profiles and technology radars,
various methodical approaches to scenario analysis,
creative methods,
trend analyses,
Delphi studies and expert workshops or surveys.

Based upon the research done on regional development processes in connection with innovation processes, methods including case studies, participation processes, scenario analyses are used.